Harry Potter and the White Light
by unique-quirky
Summary: An American transfer student, with a hidden power, befriends the Golden Trio and is thrown into a love triangle with Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. As the school year progresses, people change and grow together as danger looms around every corner.
1. New Beginnings

A/N: Things to know about this story while reading…

Sirius and Dumbledore are both ALIVE which means that certain events in book 5 and obviously book 6 have not and will not occur.

There will be some PG-13 girl on girl…don't freak it's not going to be that bad.

It's been awhile since I've written anything, especially fan-fiction, so creative criticism would be very nice.

**DISCLAIMER:** Philomena is the only thing that I own. The loverly J.K. Rowling owns all things Harry Potter.

**Chapter 1: New Beginnings**

It was the end of summer for the students attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. All the acceptance and school supply letters had been mailed and received. The trips to Diagon Alley for books, cauldrons, robes, and wands had been completed. Trunks and pets had been packed up with care and before they knew it, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley stood on platform 9 ¾ waiting for one Hermione Granger who happened to be uncharacteristically late.

"What the hell could be taking her so bloody long; it's not as if this is her first time making it to the platform. We _are_ sixth years now!" Ron bellowed to no one in particular.

"Ronald Weasley, watch your language," chided Ms. Weasley who was congratulating Ginny on her current choice of boyfriend. Harry moved closer and took Ginny's hand in his. He had already talked to Ron about it weeks before while he was staying at the Burrow, fearing that he would not be happy with him dating his one and only little sister. To the contrary, however, Ron jumped at the idea saying it was about time he figured it out and that now all he had to do was ask Ginny. Harry had just now gotten up the courage to ask her to be his girlfriend and she having never really gotten over her crush on Harry said that she would.

More quietly and directly to Harry, Ron whispered, "And a bit too old to be getting yelled at for the using the word 'bloody'. There won't be an empty compartment left at this rate." Nudging Harry in the ribs, he added, "I told you she'd say yes."

Harry laughed and nodded his head in agreement when a sudden flash of familiar brown hair appeared through the barrier. Hermione Granger had just run through with her parents trailing behind her all thoroughly looking, well Harry had to think for the right word to describe the scene before him and 'happy' definitely wasn't it. Mr. and Mrs. Granger looked confused and hurt and Hermione looked, pleased but uncomfortable. Never in the past years of knowing the Grangers had he ever seen them looking so off. Hermione waved at them and turned towards her parents, gave them each a quick smile and one of the stiffest hugs ever, said goodbye and then walked towards where Harry and Ron were waiting with Ginny and Mrs. Weasley.

"You guys have no idea how happy I am to see you!" Hermione exclaimed before wrapping both Harry and Ron into bear hugs as well as Ginny and Mrs. Weasley.

"Hermione, dear, is everything alright with you and your parents. You all seemed a bit tense," Mrs. Weasley asked as soon as Hermione released her grip on the woman.

Harry added, "Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen a goodbye like that before," pausing to think he revised his previous statement by saying, "I take that back. I've never seen your family give a goodbye like that."

Hermione paused for a moment glancing back to see if her parents were still there—they weren't. She sighed and relaxed immediately, "We are fine we just had a bit of deep discussion and from that came an argument and we all decided to put on a "happy" face for the time being and agree to disagree."

They all looked at her blankly, obviously wanting more of an explanation but she just shook her head and moved towards the train, "Come on guys, we'll have to share a compartment if we don't hurry onto the train. I'll explain it later; I just don't feel like talking about it right now. It was nice to see you again Mrs. Weasley."

Mrs. Weasley just wrapped her up into another hug, told them to behave themselves and with a loud pop she disapparated from the platform. Looking between Ginny and Harry, she noticed that they were holding hands and just grinned at them both as if to say, "It's about time!" The four friends ran into the first door they reached on the train and began searching all the compartments hoping to find one empty or at least somewhat empty. They had almost reached the front cab where all the professors who didn't stay at the school over break sat, when they noticed an empty compartment.

"Jackpot!" yelled Harry.

Ron just looked confused and Hermione explained, "It's a Muggle thing. There's a gambling machine with a handle and three spinning reels. You put coins in, pull the handle, and the reels spin. If you match the reels, then you win money. The highest match is three sevens and that is called a jackpot."

"Sounds like fun," said Ron.

"Yeah it is until you lose all your money playing the same machine and the second you get up some old lady sits down and gets a jackpot," Harry said with a laugh.

"Let me guess, something that happened to your aunt?" asked Ginny.

"Nope, Uncle Vernon, he came home from the Casino, that's the place where the machines and other gambling games are, completely purple he was so mad. I actually thought he might explode!"

With that, all four burst into laughter that lasted about five minutes due to the wonderful mental image they all got of Vernon Dursley completely purple in the face, stamping his feet like a child in a temper tantrum, yelling about little old ladies stealing his money. As the last of their laughter died down, the train's whistle blew signaling its departure from the station. The train lurched slowly forward and they began to settle in for the long ride to Hogwarts when there was a knock on their compartment door and it slowly opened. A girl about their age poked her head in and took notice of all those in the compartment. She was a short girl, with a small frame and curvy figure. Her face was somewhat tan and oval with large eyes and a small upturned nose and her lips were small and rosy pink and formed a perfect pout. Her dark brown curly hair almost rivaled Hermione's and her sapphire blue eyes almost rivaled Harry's emerald green one's in brightness.

"Would you all happen to be Gryffindors?" she asked nervously.

Harry was the first to respond, "Yes, actually we are. Why do you ask?"

"Well, this is my first time on this train and I actually don't know anyone on it. I was knocking on compartments to see if anyone would let me sit with them and the last one I knocked on the guy told me to 'look for some Gryffindors to take you in, but leave us the hell alone'."

"You must have run into some of the Slytherins, pay them no mind…" Hermione trailed off.

"Oh! I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself. My name is Philomena McKellen but everyone calls me Mena. I'm a transfer student from Magus-Agnitio Academy. Do you mind if I sit in here with you?" She smiled and showed off a perfect set of straight, white teeth.

At the mention of the academy, Hermione's interest perked, "_The_ Magus-Agnitio Academy?"

"Yes, you've heard of it? That's surprising considering it's all the way across the pond in the United States."

"Our Hermione here reads a lot so it's not all that surprising to us. By the way, my name's Ron Weasley," he stuck out his hand to shake hers.

Moving to shake Philomena's hand as well, "For once Ron's manners were better than mine. I'm Hermione Granger."

"Yeah, don't get used to it though. He'll be shoveling food into his mouth and talking at the same time at the sorting feast. I'm Ginny, his little sister," removing her hand from Harry's she shook Philomena's.

"Unfortunately that's all true, I'm Harry Potter," he shook her hand and laughed as Ron shot him a hurt look and stuck out his tongue.

"Oh, wow, the Harry Potter! Sorry, you must get that a lot. I read about you in my History of Magic class last year. Actually, you're the reason I'm here." Judging the looks on everyone faces and the fact that they all seemed to tense up she quickly explained, "Relax guys, I'm not here to kill Harry. My family used to live in London when Voldemort was in power. They moved to America when my mother found out she was pregnant with me because they feared raising me in London. They didn't believe that Voldemort could be defeated. Guess you proved them wrong," she laughed.

"You moved all the way back here to help with the war?" Hermione wondered aloud seeing that as the only other reason besides trying to kill Harry for moving back to London.

"Yes, we get an American version of your magical paper and I read that Voldemort had returned and that you and several students fought him and his followers in the London Ministry of Magic office. I was so upset that he was back that I couldn't sleep or eat and then that anger turned into determination. I thought if you guys could fight against him, so could I, so _should _I."

"Must you say his name?" Ron asked weakly.

Together both Philomena and Hermione said, "Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself." They looked at each other laughing and Hermione blushed ever so slightly.

"Not you too, I'm going to be surrounded by people who say it aren't I?" Ron asked looking upwards at the sky as if asking the gods.

"Yes, probably, I think it might be time for you to grow up Ickle Ronnikins," teased Ginny.

Ron rolled his eyes and said, "Hey, just cuz you're dating my best mate doesn't mean that you can call me by that awful nickname. I'm still older and you should respect your elders." With that, the compartment burst into laughter for the second time, Philomena included. Ron tried to shout over his friends' laughter, "I can't catch a break, can I?" Hermione leaned over and patted him on the head, "Aw you'll live."

The laughter and chatting lasted the whole ride to Hogwarts Philomena becoming well acquainted with the others and vice versa. They had found out that Philomena's parents were both magical and doctors, her father a plastic surgeon and her mother a pediatrician. Her family lineage was mostly pureblooded; however, her family was much like that of the Weasleys. There was no emphasis on marrying pureblood it just happened that way and they were by no means prejudiced against those who were not pureblood. Going so far as to say most pureblood families are like that in the US. She had five-year-old, twin brothers named Sam and Dan and could play many Muggle sports as well as Quidditch. They had learned that while there were several wizarding schools in the United States, Magus-Agnitio Academy was the most prestigious and located in Connecticut not more than an hour away from her home. The Hogwarts students then told her about some of the things that they had come to love and loathe about the school. They told her about the four houses and their heads as well as their half-giant friend Hagrid. They told her about their friends and enemies putting emphasis on Draco Malfoy. Then they told her what to expect when she stepped off the train.

"I would imagine you would go in the boats with the first years since you'll need to be sorted into a house," Hermione stated.

"Oh I hope not. I'm going to look weird standing with all those little kids," Philomena groaned.

"Maybe Hagrid will know. He'll be on the platform directing the first years. We should ask him before we get a carriage and then if you won't be with them you can come with us," Ginny offered.

"I like that idea," Philomena said right as the train began to slow down, "Perfect timing."

They all gathered up their belongings and made their way out of the compartment laughing about this and that when someone called out from one of the compartments they just passed.

"Well, well Potter seems you've added another one to your rank of Gryffindorks," Draco Malfoy sneered at them as Goyle and Crabbe grunted in amusement.

"And I was thinking that I would be lucky enough not to see you until after the feast, so much for that," Harry sighed and continued walking towards the door.

"I wasn't done with you yet, Potter," Draco spat out before he was interrupted by Philomena.

"Well we are all done with you, you snotty little prick. I've just met you and I'm already utterly bored, find someone else to bother or better yet go screw yourself."

Malfoy didn't know what to do, so he just stared with his mouth open at Philomena. People didn't usually talk to him that way, well people who weren't the Gryffindor Golden Trio. Who was this mystery girl and who did she think she was talking to him like that? Patting Philomena on the back and laughing the Gryffindors made their way off the train and searched out Hagrid.

"That was brilliant! You so better be in Gryffindor," Ginny exclaimed.

"I mean really, did you see Malfoy's face. I don't think anyone successfully shut him up so good," Harry mentioned.

"Actually, I think Hermione's still got you beat Mena," said Ron his face bright red to the tips of his ears with amusement.

"Well, I am the only one of us that has actually laid hands on him."

"What?" asked Philomena and Ginny simultaneously.

Harry began laughing hysterically at the same time as Ron and Hermione did but managed to choke out between laughs, "She punched the crap out of him back in our third year! I had almost forgotten about that! Good times, good times."

They were all still laughing when a loud bellowing voice called out over the students, "Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, it's good to have you back."

"Hello Hagrid, it's good to be back," said Harry as we went for his turn to hug the 8-foot tall man before them.

"An' who might this be?" Hagrid asked gesturing to Philomena.

"I'm Philomena McKellen; I was actually hoping you could tell me that I wouldn't have to be on the boats with the first years."

Hagrid chuckled heartily and said, "No, you can ride in the carriages up to the school. The Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore will be waiting for you there." Then noticing some of the first years looking completely lost excused himself to handle his duties. Philomena was happy that could ride in the carriages until she noticed what they were being pulled by.

"What kind of magical breed of horse is that?" she asked somewhat disgusted.

"You can see them too?" Harry asked surprised.

"Yeah can't you guys see them?"

"No, only Harry can," Ron replied.

"Oh, why's that? What are they?"

"They're called thestrals. You can only see them if you've seen someone die," Hermione explained calmly and chanced a look at Harry whose mood seemed to darken immediately.

"Oh, that's depressing," Philomena gasped and following Hermione's eye line decided, "how about a nice change of subject? So what do they usually serve at these feasts?" As soon as the question left her mouth, Ron began listing off all the delicious goodies that would be waiting for them after the sorting ceremony, which of course led to him complaining about how long the sorting ceremony usually took. It was about a ten-minute ride to the front door of Hogwarts and the entire time Philomena was staring out the carriage window taking in all that she could see. The land was beautiful, a forest lined the grounds and there was a large lake off to the side, and the castle! Sure, her school was beautiful, lots of grounds and fields, large red brick, white trimmed buildings. Nevertheless, this castle was unlike anything she had ever seen. She stared up at it in awe as she stepped out of the carriage.

"Don't have these in the US, Mena?" Ron asked.

"No, not at all, the closest thing we have are the cathedrals and most of them couldn't hold a candle to this." Philomena continued to compare and contrast the cathedrals she had seen in the US to Hogwarts as they stepped through to large front doors and stepped into the entrance hallway. A tall, white haired man in blue robes was standing at the foot of a grand staircase. When he saw the group of Gryffindors, he began walking towards them.

"Ah Harry, I see you've already met Miss McKellen," Dumbledore stated calmly before addressing Philomena directly, "Would you prefer to be called Philomena or Mena?"

"Mena, sir, but how did you know who I was?"

"I am Headmaster Dumbledore and as headmaster it is my duty and privilege to know all the students that pass through these doors. I do believe the first years will be arriving shortly, which means it is almost time to begin the feast. You will be seated at the professors' table until they arrive, please follow me."

Dumbledore gestured towards the Great Hall before smiling gingerly at Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. They entered the hall together the four Gryffindors taking their seats at the table while Philomena and Dumbledore headed for the Professors table at the front of the hall where there was a stool with a ratty old hat resting upon it. A few minutes passed and Dumbledore stood to address the school.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts one and all. As you all know, Voldemort's return has finally been recognized by the Ministry and as such, we here at the school would like to ensure you that all precautions have been taken to secure the school against any attempt at entering the grounds or the castle. Also, our caretaker Mr. Filch has asked me to remind students that there have been additions to the list of restricted items and a revised list is hanging on his office door. Last but not least the Forbidden Forest is just that, forbidden to all students."

The doors to the Great Hall swung open and Professor McGonagall swept in quickly followed by at least 60 first year students waiting to be sorted.

"Ah yes, now that the first years have arrived the sorting can begin. However, the first student to be sorted this evening is not a first year," he motioned for Philomena to stand and walk towards the stool, "This is Philomena McKellen and she is a sixth year transfer student from Magus-Agnitio Academy in the United States."

Professor McGonagall removed the tattered old hat from the stool. Philomena took the seat and the hat was placed on her head. Inside her head Philomena could hear the hat speaking to her, "You've got great potential, very great potential. You got an unimaginable power that could prove quite helpful in Slytherin. What's this you are not a fan of Slytherin? Quite clever, loyal, and courageous, better make it GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled the last word aloud for the entire Great Hall to hear and a massive cheer came from the Gryffindor table with her four train companions yelling the loudest. She hopped off the stool, strolled over to where they were sitting, and found a seat waiting for her.

"I figured you'd end up here so I thought to save you a seat," Hermione shouted over her housemates' cheers.

Philomena smiled at her and patted her hand, "Thank you Hermione. You know that batty old hat tried to put me in Slytherin. What's up with that?"

Harry shot her a quick look of shock before clearing his face and striking up a conversation with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan about Quidditch. The sorting hat sang it's song about inter-house unity and such and when it was done McGonagall began calling the first years alphabetically to be placed under the sorting hat. Several students in Ron's stomach began making strange gurgling noises and he moaned, "I'm starving! This nonsense takes forever."

"Would you like some cheese with that whine?" asked Philomena grinning.

Hermione, who was the only one that caught the play on words, began laughing quietly to herself and Philomena began laughing as well glad that her joke hadn't been missed by everyone at the table. Half an hour later, Dumbledore stood to congratulate the first years and then to everyone's approval said, "Tuck in," and all kinds of delicious smelling foods appeared out of nowhere on plates and platters alike and goblets filled themselves with pumpkin juice. Everyone in the Great Hall ate their fill before the house prefects led the students to their houses and said the password. Hermione, Philomena, and Ginny said goodnight to boys making plans to meet them for breakfast tomorrow before classes and headed to their respective dormitories. Ginny said a quick goodbye to the girls as she disappeared in to her dormitory while Hermione and Philomena ducked into the sixth year dormitory. Ready for bed in record time the two girls laid down to sleep, but before she could go to bed, Philomena rolled over and whispered across the room to Hermione, "Hey Hermione you still up?"

"Yes, I'm still awake."

"I'm kind of nervous about tomorrow what with getting around this huge castle to all my classes."

"You'll be alright, I'm sure you'll have all your classes with at least one of more of us. We'll help you out so no worries."

"Thanks, I'm so glad I knocked on your compartment door. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."


	2. She made him bleed!

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all things Harry Potter. I just own Philomena.**

Chapter 2: "She made him bleed!"

Philomena woke up the next morning to the sounds of sheets rustling and girl's voices. Rolling over, she realized that it was her roommates getting ready for classes. She yawned, stretched her body to shake off the morning drowsiness, and threw her legs over the right side of her bed. She stood up right as Hermione was walking over to her bed to wake her up and the two collided with a loud thud. They laughed as they rubbed the knots that were forming on their foreheads from the sudden impact. Philomena began to head towards the bathroom when she realized that her feet were tangled in her bed sheet and as she fell, she reached out and grabbed the first thing her hand latched on to. However, what she had thought was the curtain to her four-poster bed was actually the red velvety robe that Hermione was wearing and without warning had dragged an off-balance and off-guard Hermione down on top of her.

"Umph," they both grunted in unison as their bodies met the floor.

"Oh Hermione! I am so sorry. I thought I had grabbed the curtains. I'm such a klutz," Philomena apologized profusely.

"It's ok. I'm friends with Harry Potter; I've been banged up much worse than this. I can take a hit," Hermione replied. Laughing nervously she pushed herself up off the ground quickly and then grabbed Philomena's hands to help her up. "You'd better hurry up we told the boys we'd meet them in the common room in twenty minutes."

Philomena ran off to the bathroom and quickly showered and dressed. Making her way back to the common room she began riffling through her trunk to find her blow-dryer. Hermione looked over at her and asked, "What on Earth are you looking for?"

"My blow-dryer. I would let my hair air dry but I would look like a large poodle by then end of it and I can't remember the drying and straightening spells my friend taught me."

"Here I'll do it. Siccusio Capillus is for drying it and Rectus Capillus is for straightening it. I was so fortunate to stumble across them myself a few years ago. You should see what my hair used to look like," and with a few swishes of her wand Philomena's hair was dried and straightened. Hermione absentmindedly stroked her fingers through Philomena's hair.

"Your hair is really soft. What kind of conditioner do you use on it?" she asked as she quickly removed her hand.

"Thanks. My mom's hobby is making homemade beauty products. I use her conditioner and shampoo. She even makes make-up. If you want, I can owl her to send me some for you," she said as she swiftly applied her make-up perfectly with the expertise of a professional make-up artist.

"Really? That would be great actually. My hair is just so frizzy and unhealthy and nothing I've bought seems to work on it. I think it's just untamable," she laughed as they grabbed their bags and headed down the stairs to meet Ginny and boys.

When they reached the Common Room, Ron was the first to speak up, "It's about time. I mean really, you make us get up extra early to get a sit-down breakfast and then you make us wait! I'm starved, let's go."

Philomena rolled her eyes along with everyone else and retorted as they stepped through the portrait hole to go to breakfast, "Oh Ron is food all you think about? Besides, we women don't just roll out of bed looking so good. You should consider yourself lucky to be seen with us; we are hot!" She laughed and the other girls joined in nodding their heads in agreement.

"Yes, I suppose we should. We could be stuck with girls like Pansy and Millicent," Ron stated as he stuck one of his fingers down his throat and made an awful gagging noise.

Harry snorted in agreement, as he grabbed Ginny close to him and kissed her lightly on the temple, "Yes, thank Merlin for the girls that we've got."

"Who're Pansy and Millicent?" asked Philomena

"About the ugliest girls in this school and mean as hell," Ginny replied, "Pansy Parkinson is the pug-faced girl that you will see hanging on to Draco Malfoy's arm for dear life, you met him on the train. Millicent Bullstrode is a man in drag."

The dry tone in which Ginny had described Millicent had the companions doubled over in laughter and they were still chortling to themselves as they sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall and began eating. Philomena looked over to the Slytherin table to see if she could pick out the two girls Ginny had described to her. Spotting Malfoy's white blond hair easily she looked to his side to find an unattractive girl with a mashed in face clinging to his arm. _That one must be Pansy. I wonder why he's with her, he may be a prick but he's cute and therefore could do so much better, _she thought to herself and began looking for Millicent. Sitting next to Malfoy on the other side she saw three behemoths, two she recognized as the boys from Malfoy's compartment, Crabbe and Goyle, the other she did not know. "Hey who's that other guy that's sitting next to Crabbe and Goyle?"

The entire group of Gryffindors looked up to see whom she was referring to and immediately began laughing hysterically, clutching their sides, and doubling up over each other. Tears were streaming from Ginny's eyes and she choked out, "That's Millicent!" as she promptly fell back into Harry who was also shaking so much from laughter he almost fell off the bench.

"Oh dear, she is a manly sort of girl," Philomena spat out before she disintegrated into a fit of laughter as well.

The Gryffindors tried to settle down a bit as Professor McGonagall came by with their schedules, but a few chuckles and snorts could still be heard along the table. When she got to their section, she gave them a stern look but her eyes sparkled with laughter and as soon as she made her way to the end of the table, they burst out laughing again.

"Did you see that? Even McGonagall thinks she's hideous and she's a teacher. She's supposed to be subjective," Ron cried in a not-to-hushed whisper.

"Objective," Hermione and Philomena corrected him and he just rolled his eyes and muttered, "Whatever, you knew what I meant."

"You guys have got some serious Fred and George telepathy going on," Harry said gesturing at both Hermione and Philomena, "That's the second time you guys have said the same thing at the same time."

Hermione nodded her head in agreement and said, "Well you know what they say, great minds think alike," and she nudged Philomena who looked slightly lost. She looked at Harry and asked, "Who are Fred and George?"

"They are Gin and Ron's older twin brothers. Last year was their seventh year here but they left the school early because of Professor Umbridge. She was our DADA teacher last year and did everything the Ministry said, including trying to hush up Voldemort's return and teaching a Ministry approved curriculum, which did not include practical defense lessons. She was horrid but they showed her up real good. They flew through the halls on their brooms, setting off fireworks and swamps and everything. I miss those two."

"Speaking of DADA, do we know who our new teacher is?" Ginny asked.

Hermione, who had been studying their schedules, looked up with a grin and shouted, "It's Tonks! She must be taking a break from the Ministry and the Order."

"Oh this should be interesting! She's a metamorphmagus and she's really quirky. I bet her classes will be a lot of fun!" said Ginny.

"What does the rest of the schedule look like Hermione?" asked Ron.

"Double Potions first, with the Slytherins, then DADA, break for lunch, Transfiguration, and you guys have Divination and I have Arithmancy."

"Why do they torture us with the Slytherins in Potions? I know the classroom is small and they can't put all the houses in there at once but we've been stuck with them all five years and now this one too. Potions wouldn't be so bad if the rival houses weren't together, especially considering that Snape can't be **objective **when it's between us and them," Ron groaned making sure to put extra emphasis on objective, making Hermione and Philomena smirk at him.

"What? All I'm asking for is one year with Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. That's it," Ron finished with his arms raised up in the air, "Is that too much to ask?"

"Come on guys let's get a move on before we are late. Snape doesn't need a reason to deduct points from us so let's not give him one," Hermione reasoned through her laughter at Ron's display. They wiped their hands and mouths on the napkins and gathered their stuff to leave. Harry kissed Ginny on the lips before standing to leave with his classmates.

Reaching the dungeons, they were met by Draco, who sneered down at them all. "Well, Potter didn't expect you to make it into Potions this year, you either Weasel. I imagine you had your little Mudblood helping out," he smirked at the group as they reddened in the face and adopted looks of murder. _Gods they make it so easy, I say Mudblood and they are all ready to fight to the death, they really should work on their anger control, ah but then they'd be no fun to torture, _he thought to himself when he noticed that the girl from the train was with them as well. Harry and Ron were about to hex the smirk off Draco's face, when they felt a hand on their shoulders pushing them aside. Philomena stepped between them and closed the three feet of distance between herself and Draco. They were so close their noses were almost touching and Draco had this deep urge to step back but he was not one to show weakness and he definitely wasn't going to let this girl intimidate him, for crying out loud he was at least a foot taller than she was. Very calmly, she began to speak to him, "I wouldn't use such language like that if I were you. There's no telling who you might offend."

The calmness in her voice seemed odd and out of place in this situation. He was used to Potter and Weasley yelling at him in rage and her calmness unsettled him to no end but he stood his ground and smirked at her, "You make it sound as if I care that I might offend someone. Granger is nothing more than a worthless piece of dirt to anyone of any importance so why should I care if I offend her. In fact, I rather enjoy it." Harry and Ron made to jump at him but Hermione grabbed them back wanting to see how Philomena would handle this. It wasn't long before she found out because Philomena's fist had just connected with Draco's face. He yelled in pain and shock and just as she recoiled her arm to punch him again, Snape came up the hallway.

"What do we have here? Miss McKellen, isn't it a bit early in your stay here at Hogwarts to be earning detention and losing house points? No matter, you will serve detention tonight with me after dinner and 30 points from Gryffindor for hitting a defenseless student," and with that he swept into his classroom followed by a very smug looking Draco who spat the blood in his mouth at their feet.

"Welcome to Potions," said Harry with a laugh.

"This is not funny, he can't do that. That little prat provoked me, besides you can't say things like **that**!" Philomena yelled.

"Oh yes he can and does, as much as he wants, especially when he's around his head of house, Snape. Anyone else would have his guts for garters," stated Hermione.

"Damn good punch though, totally worth the detention and the points," Ron added as he pat Philomena on the back, "You even made the slimy git bleed."

Philomena just shook her head in disbelief as they made their way into the classroom and took their seats in the back of the class as far away from Snape as possible. Exactly at nine o'clock, Snape began to lecture them on what they would be learning over the course of this school year.

"This year, in order to promote inter-house unity," Snape paused disdainfully before continuing, "the Headmaster has required certain classes to assign a partnered project during the school year. As one of those classes, the project assigned in here will be on going throughout the year and will count for 50 of your final grade. It consists of brewing an extremely difficult potion and writing an essay. There is a potion list on the board. You and your partner will pick a potion to research and brew. All potion ingredients will be in my stores closet. The potions will take anywhere between one to three months to brew which will allow time for incorrect potions to be re-done. Each member in the group must try the potion and write down their experiences, which is why it is absolutely necessary that these potions be brewed correctly. The essay, which is required to be at least three feet in length, will discuss the potion and its ingredients. The uses of the potion, who created it, what each ingredients' properties are, how those properties help to create the potion, as well as each members' notes on the potions' affects on them are required aspects of the essay.

"On certain days during the school year, you will be given class time to work with your partner on your research; you will need to sit with them at these times. Any other lecture day, you may sit as you please. As there is a great deal of research and preparation required for this project, I suggest that you start on it as soon as possible. It will require a lot of time outside of class as well; do not expect to achieve a passing grade if you throw this project together at the last minute. Now, I will call your names and you will need to sit with your partner. When you have decided on what potion to do, you will need to come up, tell me and then go back to your seat. Once all the groups have finished we will be heading up to the library so that you may begin your research."

With that he began calling off students' names and placing them in pairs of one Gryffindor and one Slytherin each. Hermione was partnered with Pansy, Harry with Blaise, Ron with Millicent, and Philomena with Draco. At the sound of his name, Philomena's anger immediately bubbled up again as she rose to sit next to the one person she had truly not wanted to work with. _Damn Snape, probably put me with him on purpose so he could piss me off more and make me lose more points, _she thought angrily as she slammed her books on the table and glared at the smug boy next to her. She glanced at each of her friends as Snape continued to rattle names off his list. Harry looked like he wanted to punch Blaise and Ron looked like he was afraid of being touched in general by Millicent. When she looked at Hermione, she found the girl looking at her as well. She scrunched her face up at Philomena in an imitation of Pansy and Philomena put on a smirk that would rival Malfoy himself. They grinned at each other and then turned back to the front of class just as Snape finished calling off names. He gestured at them to begin discussing the potions as he went to sit behind his large desk and began reading a book. Philomena turned towards Draco and found him looking at her intently. "We're doing the Spirituelle Réveil potion," he said with a smirk and stood to tell Snape. She grabbed the sleeve of his robes and yanked him back down into his stool.

"The hell we are," she said a little too loudly and Snape looked up from his book. "That potion is like the Muggle drug LSD. I can't believe he put it up there as a possibility!" she said more quietly.

"It's a potion that many Seers use to focus their inner eye and for those that aren't Seers, it gives them a brief glimpse into their futures. What's LSD?" Draco asked before he could stop himself.

"It's more commonly called acid. Muggles used it a lot in the 60s and 70s and had psychedelic "trips"—the high causes the taker to perceive their reality as distorted visually and spiritually. However, bad trips cause the taker to freak out and panic. I don't care how it's used I'm not brewing that, and who said you get make all the decisions in this group?" Philomena whispered angrily at him.

"I get to make all the decisions because I'm undoubtedly more intelligent and you sure seem to know a lot about the drug."

"How I know that is none of your business. And for your information, I was first in my class at Magus-Agnitio," seeing some recognition flash over Draco's face she added, "Yes, I figured that would mean something to you, and before you deign to call me some horrible name, I'm a pureblooded witch from a family that is probably just as old if not older than yours. I know how wizards like you act, how they treat people who aren't just like them. Look, I don't like you and you don't like me and you know what, we don't have to like each other. But damn it we are going to work together on this project because I refuse to get a bad grade because you are a twat. I'm not going to let you walk all over me either. So you'd better get used to sharing responsibilities and respecting me because that's the only way we are going to get through this class without killing each other or failing, and I'm more prepared to do the first." Her face was all seriousness and Draco let his sneer fall ever-so-slightly before responding, "Fine, which potion would you prefer to do?"

"Well, I remember reading something about Approfondir Vouloir potion; it shows you your deepest desires. But, I'd also like to try Spontané Manifeste; it allows you to be completely open to everyone and everything. What do you think?"

"I still want my own," Draco said as he folded his arms over his chest.

"Fine, then, if you are going to be stubborn, I'll Rock Paper Scissors you for it."

"What the hell is that?"

"Don't you know anything about Muggles? It's a game; you use your hand and make a rock, a paper, or a scissors. Rock crushes scissors, scissors cuts paper, and paper covers rock. You throw the symbol on the third count and best two out of three wins."

"Okay and no I don't know anything about Muggles. They are just as pointless and useless as Mudbloods."

"Do not say that word around me, please. You can use it whenever I'm not around but please do not use it when we are working on this."

"Why does it bother you so? You are a pureblood."

"Why must you say it? What has any Muggle or Muggleborn done to you to cause you to have such a horrible opinion of them?"

"It's rude to answer a question with a question. Let's get this game over with; which one of your potions are you playing for?"

"How about this, winner gets to pick the potion no questions asked?"

Draco nodded in agreement and Philomena quietly began to count to three, on the third count, she threw a rock, and Draco threw scissors.

"One nothing," she taunted and began the count again. This time Draco threw a rock and she threw scissors.

"One all," Draco countered, and the last hand was thrown. Draco had thrown paper and Philomena had thrown a rock.

"Best two out three, I win, and I choose my potion," he smirked all the way up to Snape's table. Philomena sucked in air threw her teeth and sighed to herself. _Well at least we compromised and he played fair, maybe I'll be able to deal with him for a year after all, _she thought. Ten minutes later, they were heading up to the library to look for books on their potion. They sat in a secluded area of the Restricted Section almost completely shut off from the rest of the class. They milled through several books that mentioned the potion and what it was used for. But none had so much as mentioned the ingredients yet. Her frustration had gotten the better of her and she slammed the tome she had been reading shut and massaged her temples. Draco looked up at her and rolled his eyes slowly shutting his book as well. He needed a break and so he decided to play along, "What's your problem?"

"Nothing, my eyes hurt from straining to read these fine print books and now I'm getting a headache," she groaned.

"If you'd like we can call it a day and meet up sometime this week to continue looking up stuff. I'm actually tired of doing this myself."

"That was actually civil, I'm surprised."

"Well don't get used to it, McKellen. You are a Gryffindor and a Mud- Muggle lover. Don't expect me to be anymore civil to you than this," and with that he closed the rest of his books, returned them to the shelves, and packed up his things to leave. Not two minutes later Philomena heard Snape's voice telling the class that they were dismissed. She met up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione and they walked to their Defense Against the Dark Arts class together in a sour mood.

"I'm glad we have Tonks after Snape, at least she'll brighten our moods," grumbled Harry.

"I just don't get it, why do the Slytherins treat everyone except themselves with disdain and contempt? What's that about?" Philomena asked.

"Their house is known for putting out dark wizards, Voldemort himself was a Slytherin when he was a student here," explained Ron, "Everyone is basically waiting for them to all get the Dark Mark burned into their skin."

Hermione scrunched her face up in disgust, "Not only that, but they are all privileged purebloods who see themselves as a higher quality and class than the majority of the witches and wizards here. In fact, most of them don't believe half of the student here worthy to attend just because we are Muggleborn," at this her head drooped, "What did we do to them?"

"Funny story, I asked Malfoy that same question earlier."

"What'd he say?" asked Hermione wondering if there was any other excuse for it other than that his father, Lucius, had been brain washing that ideal among others into his head since the time that he was a small child.

"Nothing, we were playing Rock Paper Scissors to see who got to pick the potion."

Harry laughed, "Malfoy? Playing Rock Paper Scissors? That's funny and quite unbelievable as well."

Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement as they entered the Defense classroom and took their seats. Hearing a loud crash in the office just off the classroom many of the students jumped to their feet wands at the ready. Harry, Ron, and Hermione just laughed to themselves, and Hermione leaned over to Philomena and said, "Tonks is about as clumsy as you, Mena," and the two girls really started chuckling. A few seconds later, a young witch in her twenty's, with bright pink hair strolled from the office and to the front of the class.

"Sorry about that, you can put your wands down guys. My name is Nymphadora Tonks and I will be your new Defense teacher. I'm an Auror for the Ministry of Magic and am quite accustomed to dealing with dark witches and wizards as well as dangerous magical creatures," at that she grinned and winked the Trio, who knew that she was probably referring to both Lupin and Sirius, who were a werewolf and a dog respectively. She continued, "I'm a pretty laid back kind of person so, pretty please don't call me Professor Tonks, it make me feel and sound old and stuffy. Tonks will work just fine with me. Also, I'm pretty sure I've got all your names down already, so I will probably call you by your first names. Another little tidbit about me is that I am a Metamorphmagus and who can tell me what that is?"

The Trio's hands were among the first hands in the air but Philomena's was definitely the first and as such Tonks called on her, "Philomena, right? I'm guessing you go by Mena?"

"Yes, actually I do."

"I understand, long first names, it's just too much to say."

The class chuckled a little and Philomena went to answer the question, "Metamorphmagi, are, in simplest terms, shape-shifters. They are very rare and can change their appearance at will and unlike Animagi, Metamorphmagi are born that way. One cannot study to become a Metamorphmagus like they can to become an Animagus."

"Brilliant, Mena! Fifteen points to Gryffindor," and with a snap of her fingers her hair was purple. "It's quite useful too, one minute you're this way and the next minute," and she snapped her fingers again and her hair went back to pink, "You're someone else."

Tonks spent the rest of the class discussing random things and answering the curious questions of her students, explaining that the first day is and always should be an introduction day. When she dismissed the class, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Philomena stayed after to have a more private discussion with her.

"I was hoping you guys would stick around and chat for a minute," Tonks said eagerly.

"We've got a break for lunch right now so we can talk for a bit," replied Hermione.

"So how's Padfoot and Moony?" Harry asked.

Tonks looked at Philomena, who had no clue what Harry was talking about and asked, "Um, you sure you want to talk about this now?"

Harry looked at Philomena, then back at Tonks, and said, "Oh, Mena's cool. We just haven't explained everything to her yet. She's one of us."

Philomena's face lit up like no other. She knew they considered her their friend but she knew now that they considered her to be part of their inner circle. She smirked at him, "Does punching Malfoy in the grill have anything to do with this?"

They all just stared blankly at her and Hermione asked, "What's a grill?"

Laughing, Philomena explained, "Oh it's slang for mouth. I forget you guys have a different set of slang terms over here."

Tonks finally responded, "Ha, did you get him good? You didn't hear me ask that though."

They all nodded laughing hysterically and Ron said, "She made him bleed!"

Tonks laughed out loud at that and fell off the chair she was sitting on, "Oops, anyway, they are both fine. Moony is doing some work for the Order right now, actually. Padfoot is moping about headquarters as usual. You all should come visit him for Christmas. Give him someone else to talk to, you know?"

"Well that's good to hear. I know I would like to spend some time there, sure beats going home anyway," Hermione said.

Harry and Ron looked at her strangely and then realization shot across Ron's face, "Hey! You never told us about that fight you and your parents got into."

Hermione seemed to shrink in on herself. She had been having so much fun with her friends and meeting Philomena and becoming friends with her, she had actually forgotten about it. She didn't want to tell them about it because she feared things would change between them. They had been friends for a very long time, had been through things most people would never even imagine going through, and through it all had managed to remain intact as people and as friends. She shook her head as if to rid herself of the worry and bad thoughts and said, "Not tonight guys. This weekend would work better. We can sit down in the common room, sneak some food from the kitchen, and make a party of it. Besides we do still have to fill Philomena in on the past five years. She's one of us and it won't do her any good to not be prepared for the things that she might have to deal with just because she is associated with us."

Philomena's body tensed up at that last sentence and Harry's and Ron's identical looks of seriousness only made her feel worse. The way they talked was as if any moment any of them could be dead and she had a feeling that that wasn't a far off assumption. Tonks looked at the serious mood and decided to lighten it up. She sneezed and her hair went into a rainbow afro like a clown wig and all present started laughing. As the laughter died down she changed her hair back and said, "That's better, you'd better head down to lunch and get something to eat."

They all stood, waved bye at Tonks, and headed down the stairs to eat a quick lunch before they finished off the rest of their classes. Transfiguration went by rather smoothly until Goyle transfigured Crabbe into a frog. The entire rest of the class was spent trying to catch the hopping idiot before he hopped out and into the castle. Hermione waved to them as she turned down one corridor to go to Arithmancy and the others climbed the stairs to get to the Divination classroom.

"So I wonder what marvelous ways Trelawny will come up for you to die this year, Harry," Ron chuckled.

"I'll probably be eaten by the giant squid while walking with Ginny. That's tragic and gruesome enough for her don't you think?" replied Harry and he too began laughing.

"Oh you guys are awful she can't be that bad," said Philomena and the boys just gave her a you-just-wait-and-see look as they took their seats on the large fluffy beanbags in the incense-hazed room.

"Does she have a body odor problem or something cuz all this incense is a bit much," and sneezed several times in a row before her nose adjusted to the room. The guys, who were in the middle of a fit of laughter at both the comment and the torrent of sneezes that issued forth afterwards, were suddenly knocked off balance as Philomena threw one of the smaller pillows and clobbered them both with one shot. Harry was the first to regain his composure and asked, "Are you trying out for the Quidditch team?" Philomena opened her mouth to reply but before she could he cut her off by saying, "Cuz you should. With an arm like that you'd make an excellent Chaser."

"I wasn't planning on it, but if you say so it can't hurt to try out," Philomena replied with a shrug. They were still chatting about Quidditch when Trelawny entered the room.

"Good afternoon class, as most of, if not all of you know, I am Professor Trelawny. Today, we will be discussing palm reading." She began to drone on about the first mystic to use palm reading as a method of Seeing and then told the students to practice with those around them. Ron had Philomena's hand and was twisting it painfully to the side trying to figure out which line was the life line.

"You know wrists only bend so far in certain directions," Philomena said wincing in pain and Ron let her hand go.

"Sorry, this class is absolutely useless, why did we sign up for this again?" asked Ron.

"Well I needed the credit," stated Philomena.

"And we wanted an easy class," Harry said as he grabbed Ron's hand and then began flipping through his text trying to figure out what freckles on the lines meant.

Trelawny had been making her rounds of the class and had finally made it to their area.

"Ah, dear Harry, I see you survived the hippogriff attack I warned you about last year. Let me see your hand dear boy so that I may warn you of any other coming dangers," with that she began to stream together the most ridiculous story of how Harry was going to die sometime within the next year. Philomena understood what the boys had been warning her about on the way up here now and was currently trying her best not to laugh in the woman's face. She had now moved on to Ron and plainly stated, "Ah, forever in the shadow, never in the light." Ron's face fell and he looked over to Harry and frowned in thought, _she's an absolute kook but eventually she had to get something right I suppose. _Philomena looked from Ron to Professor Trelawny and said, "That was rather rude don't you think?"

For what it was worth, Trelawny had the decency to look sorry, but said, "I only speak what I See. You must be new here otherwise you would know that."

"Oh and did you See that as well," said Philomena as she held out her hand, "What do you See here, Professor?" She had received a few hushed laughs and snorts at her first statement mostly from Ron and Harry. Lavender and Parvati hissed in annoyance at Philomena's gall for challenging their wonderful professor. One look at their faces had the boys absolutely red in the face, trying to hold back laughter. Not one to back down, Trelawny grasped Philomena's hand and began tracing her fingers across the girls hand. Her face dropped the over-dramatic expression, and her eyes seemed to gaze straight through Philomena. When she spoke her voice was raspy and ragged, "You have a beloved power deep within you, one that has not been seen for many centuries. It will manifest itself sooner than you think, at a time when it will be most useful. You must learn to harness it and mold to your control. You are the key, the power He knows not!" Trelawny blinked her eyes slowly, looking across the classroom and said, "I do feel a bit under the weather. Class is dismissed early," and she let go of Philomena's hand.

Harry was staring in disbelief at both the retreating Trelawny and the utterly shocked Philomena. She was the power that he was supposed to use to defeat Voldemort. He was used to being used as a weapon again evil and he didn't like having to carry that burden; could he possibly bestow that burden on someone else, someone he had just met? Philomena was packing up, her hands were shaking, and she was having trouble getting her books into her bag. Harry grabbed her hands and said, "I was a bit shaken up the first time I heard the old bat give a real prophesy too. It's a good thing we are filling you in on everything this weekend."

She nodded and took her bag from Ron who had packed it up for her and they all began their trek back to the Gryffindor Common Room. When they got there, they noticed Hermione sitting on the couch staring off into the fireplace. Ron walked over to her and waved his hand in front of her face, "Hello! Earth to Hermione!" She turned to them, smiling and asked, "Sorry about that I was just day-dreaming. How was Divination?"

"Trelawny made a real prophesy again, about Philomena," Harry said.

"Really? About what?"

"She said that I was the key that I had a power that hadn't been seen in centuries," Philomena said.

Ron added, "One that He knows not."

The significance of his statement was not missed by Hermione and her eyes went wide. Philomena looked at her and said, "You're giving me the same look these two did when she said that? What does that mean?"

Hermione explained in a hushed voice, "She said that same thing in the prophesy that was made about the defeat of Voldemort. That the one who could defeat him would be born as the seventh month dies, that the dark lord would mark him as his equal, and that he would have a power the dark lord wouldn't know about—a power He knows not." Silence engulfed the small group as the meaning of those words sank into Philomena.

"So Harry is marked with his scar and I am the power that he has to use to defeat Voldemort," She chuckled nervously, "I guess it's a good thing my family moved back to London."

**A/N: Hey guys, if anyone is reading this…please review and give me some feedback it's nice to know what people are thinking.**


	3. The Jig is Up

**A/N: **Sorry this took so long to update. My laptop screen went dark which kept me from typing this chapter and updating it. I've just now gotten access to a computer so forgive me if it isn't as good as the other chapters. I'll probably remove it and edit it better when I get my laptop back. Also, with the release of the 7th and final Harry Potter book I have to add another stipulation to my story…**Nothing in the 7****th**** book will be discussed in this story, which in essence, means no spoilers!**

**Disclaimer: **Rowling owns all things related to Harry Potter…Philomena is mine.

**Chapter 3: **The Jig is Up

Philomena waved goodbye to her fellow Gryffindors and trudged sorrowfully out of the Great Hall towards the door leading to the dungeons. However, just as she reached the door, it swung open to reveal a smug looking Draco Malfoy.

"Well, well, heading to your detention with my head of house are you, _Mena_?" If it was possible his smirk grew more pronounced as he emphasized her nickname.

"Don't call me that! Only my friends can call me by that name. Last time I checked we were not friends, you prat!"

"Now, I wouldn't be using that kind of language. You wouldn't want to land yourself in another pleasant detention, _Mena_."

"I would gladly take another detention if I could just lay hands on you again," with that she brought her hand up to his face and slowly curled her fingers into a tight fist making each knuckle crack as she did so. Draco's smirk faltered for a moment, but he recovered quickly by saying, "Find me that irresistible, eh? Can't keep your hands off me?" He began to laugh in earnest because Philomena's face had turned bright red. _Wow she could rival the Weasel with that vibrant shade of scarlet,_ he thought to himself. Philomena was pissed, but she was not the type of person to be backed down by someone like Draco Malfoy. Philomena eased a little closer to him and whispered seductively, "Nope, sure can't." She pulled her hand back and slapped him hard across the face, "Don't kid yourself, Malfoy. The only reason for me to touch you is to inflict physical pain." With that, she turned from him and began to make her decent to Snape's office.

The two hours Philomena spent cleaning and organizing the potions store closet without using magic was two hours too many. She was presently dragging herself up the many flights of stairs covered in Merlin knows what. The common room was still quite active when she climbed through the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Over here, Mena!" shouted Ron from his chair near the fire. He and Harry were engaged in a gamed of Wizards' Chess and Harry's knight had one of Ron's pawns in a headlock. Hermione looked up from her book, rolled her eyes at the boys and gestured for Mena to sit next to her on the couch.

"What is that in your hair?" she asked.

"Honestly? I have no idea and I'm pretty certain that I don't want to know."

"Clean the closet the Muggle way?" asked Harry with a grin as Ron's pawn finally passed out and quit struggling.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Oh we're pros at the closet, the trophy room--" said Ron before Harry cut him off.

"Lines," he muttered, absently rubbing the back of his right hand.

"I don't know how you stand it," yawning Philomena added, "I'm knackered. I'm going to take a shower and head to bed. Breakfast same time tomorrow?"

The three Gryffindors nodded in agreement and Philomena headed to the bathroom. After her shower she felt even more tired and was asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

The rest of the week went by quite peacefully. Philomena, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had managed to survive the week without threatening, hexing, or beating Malfoy, which was a great accomplishment for the foursome. He tried especially hard to annoy Philomena in Potions class, but nothing got her to act on the anger he knew she was bottling up inside. The Gryffindors were not to be vexed seeing as three of the four good friends had their minds on Quidditch tryouts to keep them both happy and distracted. When Saturday morning arrived, Philomena, Ron, and Harry made their way to the Quidditch pitch for tryouts, and were surprised to see Ginny waiting with some of the other hopefuls.

"Hey Gin! You didn't tell me you were trying out," said Ron.

"I didn't to you. But last year, when I was filling in for Harry as Seeker, I mentioned that I might tryout for Chaser," she replied.

"Me too. How many spots are open?" Philomena asked Harry.

"Both the Beaters spots are open as well as two Chaser positions so there's room for both of you, if you're good enough," Harry answered as he moved to the front of the crowd to get the tryouts started.

"All right guys gather around!" he shouted, "As you all know who I am, I'll make this introduction brief so that we can get down to business. I'm Harry Potter and I am the new Gryffindor Quidditch Captain." Several whoops and shouts came from the existing team. He waved them quiet and continued, "We've got four open positions available, both Beater positions and two Chaser positions. We're going to start with some quick warm-ups and then we are going to have you guys play with the team to see how well you play and how well you work together."

After the warm-ups, Harry took turns placing those who were trying out in their respective spots. He practiced with the Beaters first. Acting as a Chaser from an opposing team he zigzagged his way across the pitch testing their aiming skills. One of the students, Zachary Thomason managed to hit a bludger in his general direction, but his partner Louis Baker was so bad he actually hit the bludger backwards towards the posts and almost knocked Ron off his broom. The next pair didn't fair much better than Baker and were dismissed quickly before they killed someone. The last person to tryout was a girl named Roberta Klutch and she was on fire. Harry partnered her up with Thomason and the two worked well as a pair—passing the bludger between them to get better aim at Harry as he attempted to score. He quickly congratulated them on making the team and asked them to get in on the scrimmage as the chasers tried out.

The first group was awful; the second group did okay but by far the stars of the day were Ginny and Philomena. They both weaved in and out avoiding blockers and bludgers alike with an air of effortlessness. But, it was their final shot that had the team set on adding the two girls to the team. Philomena had been in possession of the Quaffle when both a blocker and a bludger had been heading her way. She tossed the ball into the air, flipped her broomstick into a forward 360°, and whacked it with the tail of her broom over the blocker's head straight at Ginny, who threw it quickly into the goal right between her brother's outstretched hands.

The tryouts had lasted a total of two hours and at the end of it, Harry was completely pleased with his new team. They all walked back to Gryffindor tower together, cleaned up, and met Hermione in the Great Hall for a well earned lunch.

"You look pleased with yourself, Harry. I expect tryouts went well," Hermione said as she ate her sandwich and skimmed the _Daily Prophet_.

"Yeah, I am. I think we've got an excellent team," he boasted as he grabbed an apple from the fruit plate. He, Ron, Philomena, and Ginny then began to recount some of the highlights of the tryout for Hermione. When they had finished, Ginny mentioned something about starting on a paper that was due on Wednesday, kissed Harry on the cheek, and left the table. They had been sitting at the table talking about nothing in particular when an owl soared into the Great Hall and landed on the Gryffindor table, right in front of Philomena. The owl stuck out its leg; she untied the note, and gave it a bit of apple to chew on.

"Who's that from?" asked Ron.

"Malfoy," she gave a groan, "Says he wants to do some research tomorrow in the library for our project. Why did I have to be paired with him?"

"Because Snape hates us all," replied Harry with a hint of anger in his voice.

"I suppose I should write him back then," and with her wand and the same piece of paper burned her response (**Okay, Noon) **on the back of the paper. She then tied it back onto the owl's leg and gave him a pat saying, "Take that back to him." The owl hooted sharply and took off in the same direction it had come from.

"'Alk abou' ge'ing a 'ump 'art o' 's pro'ect," said Ron with a mouthful of food.

"What did you just say?" asked Philomena.

Ron held up a finger, continued chewing and then swallowed in one gulp.

"I said, 'Talk about getting a jump start on this project,'"

"Oh, that's definitely not what came out though," she said and began to chuckle.

"So," Ron began, putting his head closer over the table gesturing for the others to follow, "Where are we going to have our little chat tonight?"

Hermione pushed the rest of her sandwich away, put down the _Prophet_, and said, "Well, I was thinking the Common Room, but on a Saturday, it's going to be full of people. So we should probably use the Room of Requirement instead."

"Room of Requirement?" asked Philomena.

Ron was about to explain when several professors walked past causing him to change his thought mid-sentence, "It's a disappearing—oh, well, you'll see later."

Three hours later, the Gyrffindors found themselves on the seventh floor across from the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy.

"Okay we're here," said Harry. Philomena looked around and saw no doors to speak of. _Where the hell? This must be some kind of joke, _she thought. But just as she was about to ask them, Ron began to talk.

"Now, Mena, all you have to do is focus on what we need and walk past this bit of wall here three times and the room will appear."

"Okay and what exactly is it that we need?"

"Think we need a comfortable place to talk where no one can hear us," Harry filled in. With that, they began to pace the section of hallway between the window and the large vase as they concentrated on that statement. Philomena let out a small gasp of shock as a door appeared along the wall just as they all made their third pass. Hermione grabbed the knob and opened the door, gesturing for Philomena to step in first. She entered and was both surprised and pleased to find a cozy setup with large sofas and big puffy chairs and a nice fire.

"So, the room disappears, but is here if someone really needs something?" venture Philomena.

"Basically, all you have to do is focus on what it is that you want, walk past three times, and the room will arrange itself to your needs. We used it all last year to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts when Umbridge was 'teaching,'" Hermione explained using air quotes to emphasize.

"It was bloody useful too—still is," Ron added as he shut the door and walked over to one of the sofas and sat down.

"So who's going first?" Philomena asked looking between Harry and Hermione.

"You go Harry, your bits more important anyway," said Hermione with pleading in her eyes. For once, Harry caught on without further explanation and launched into the tale that was his life at Hogwarts. Philomena listened intently, absorbing all that he said as well as that which both Hermione and Ron added. When he began telling her about the maze in the Triwizard Tournament, Philomena became almost deathly still. She knew what was about to come; she was about to hear of Voldemort's return and the death of Cedric Diggory firsthand. She tried to prepare herself for the details but as Harry's voice became more strained and eventually turned hallow and soft her resolve broke and a few tears slid down her face. He did not stop talking however. He rushed through the events of their fifth year and quieted. A few tears were still sliding their way down her cheeks as she turned to Ron, "Why on Earth would you _Accio_ one of those brains?"

"Dunno, seemed like a good idea at the time," he answered with a weak chuckle. She gave a small short of laughter which sounded more like a sneeze due to the fact that her nose was now running. She attempted to wipe her tears with her sleeves but as they were wet already, they did nothing more than push the wetness around her face. Just then a box of tissue appeared on the coffee table before her.

"I don't even know why that upset me so much. I never knew Cedric, but my mom did. She used to be his pediatrician before we moved to America," said Philomena.

"Really?" the other three asked in unison.

"Yeah, when my mom heard about it she cried for about a day. Said he was the bubbliest baby boy. Quite literally too, he used to magically create bubbles and float on them." They all took a few seconds to think about a baby Cedric Diggory floating around a doctors' office on a large bubble. "But like I said," Philomena continued, "I never knew him at all and still I'm completely over-emotional. It's embarrassing!"

"Don't be embarrassed. The fact that you can feel like that is what separates you, and the rest of us, from them," Harry said, "Dumbledore said that our ability to feel emotions is one of our greatest weapons against Voldemort. My mother's love saved me all those years ago and when I thought Hermione and Sirius were dead at the Ministry, the pain and love I felt for them made it excruciatingly painful for Voldemort to stay in my mind." Philomena just looked at Harry; the pain he'd gone through and would still have to go through was what might save him, all of them, from Voldemort.

"Oh," was all she could bring herself to say. She felt awful, ashamed even for being so upset about a few tears. She looked away from them towards the fire and drew her knees up onto the couch and rested her head on them. Reading Philomena's expression and posture Hermione spoke, "Don't feel bad about it, you didn't know." Philomena looked up at her to find a small smile on her face and noticed that both Ron and Harry were nodding in agreement, she relaxed. Then, all eyes turned on Hermione who sighed and look at the floor. Ron nudged her slightly and she jumped at the touch. It was obvious that she was nervous about whatever it was she was planning on telling them. Harry spoke first, "C'mon 'Mione. Just blurt it out."

"Yeah, seriously. You always fuss at us for procrastinating. Who's procrastinating now?" asked Ron with amusement.

For her part, Philomena tried not to laugh at the mixed expression on Hermione's face, adding, "If you don't tell us now, they will just harass you to death or until you do."

"I think I'm more prepared to die," was Hermione's reply which came complete with dropping her face into her hands and groaning loudly. The boys began to protest in earnest now saying that she was completely overreacting, saying that there was no way that what she wasn't telling them was worth dying to keep it a secret.

"There's nothing you could do or say that would change anything," pleaded Harry.

That broke her and with her face still in her hands she mumbled something inaudible.

"What was that? We couldn't hear you," said Ron.

"I'm gay!" she blurted loudly. Ron, Harry, and Philomena stared at her completely stunned. _That was so not what I was expecting, _thought Philomena.

Harry spoke first, "Are you serious? You had us waiting in all that suspense to say those two words. That's what you and your parents were arguing about?"

"Yes, it was. I came out to them the day before I was supposed to leave for school. That's why we all still looked so tense we you saw us on the platform. They think it's some phase that I'm going to grow out of, but I wouldn't have said anything about it to them if I thought it was just a phase. They are worried they might not have any grandchildren, I guess, or maybe that people will look at our family different because I'm gay. My dad didn't really seem too upset really he hugged me but didn't speak to me at all. Mom actually said it was wrong to be _that_ way."

"Well, hell, Hermione, we're still going to love you no matter what!" said Harry, "You shouldn't have been afraid to tell us that."

"Yeah, I thought maybe you were pregnant with Krum's baby," said Ron which a look of disgust on his face.

They all stared at him for a second and then disintegrated into a fit of hysterics that had them all crying. Hermione struggled to ask them between laughs, "So—haha—you guys aren't –hehe—freaked out or—haha—anything?"

"Not at all!" was the unanimous reply.

The foursome slowly regained their composure and lapsed into a comfortable silence. After a few minutes like that, Philomena mentioned that she was getting hungry. As they all walked towards the door Harry asked Hermione, "Can I tell Ginny? She's going to find out sooner or later." Hermione was nodding her reply as Ron added, "Yeah, once you start snogging girls the jig is up." Philomena smacked him in the back of his head, Hermione said thank you and Harry who had been checking the Marauders' Map, said the coast was clear. The Gryffindors quickly filed out of the Room of Requirement as friends who were even closer now than they were when they entered.

**A/N: **Hope you enjoyed it! Please review!!!


	4. Not Another School Ball

**Disclaimer: **You guys know the deal; I don't own anything Harry Potter.

**Chapter 4: Not Another School Ball**

Of two things Philomena was certain, although loathe to admit. She was utterly and unfortunately falling for Draco Malfoy and completely aware that one Hermione Granger was falling for her. Of all the predicaments to land herself in, Philomena was sure that next to being the apparent key to Voldemort's downfall, this one took the cake. First, she was sure that falling for a guy that you insulted the moment you laid eyes on him, a guy that you had punched and slapped, was not the norm. Second, he was a Slytherin who was most likely going to follow his father's example and land himself in Azkaban for being a Death Eater.

They had been meeting each other in the library for research about 2-3 times a week and sometime towards the middle of September, she found herself just looking at him take notes. However, that wasn't what startled her. What startled her was the fact that she wasn't thinking about causing him bodily harm, just that he really was a handsome young man. She had even found herself a little upset when she wasn't "forced" to sit with him in Potions.

It was a cool evening that she first began to notice a change. While most of the students were outside enjoying the good weather, she and Draco were working on Potions. Draco was taking notes on the properties, his face scrunched up as he focused on the page. Philomena was scribbling over her parchment and staring in an all too open way at him. Just then, he made to scratch his nose and ended up getting ink all over his cheek. She began to laugh and the sudden noise cutting through the silent studious atmosphere caused him to jump slightly.

"Just what is so funny," he asked slightly annoyed.

"Well if you are going to use that tone, I won't tell you," was her reply.

"I, we, do not have time for this nonsense. We need to finish these notes so that we can begin brewing the potion."

"You've got ink on your face," Philomena stated sharply and then pretended to go back to work.

"Well that's not very helpful, where on my face?"

"Oh I'm not going to waste my time telling you," she snickered, "besides I think it adds a bit of character."

"I'm sure it does, but I am not one to run about looking like part of the Weasel clan. I am a Malfoy and we do not walk around with ink on our faces."

"You walk? I was under the impression that you Malfoy men strutted," she smirked at him.

Draco rolled his eyes at her, began to wipe his face with the same ink covered hand, and did nothing but spread the ink further over his face. Philomena did her best to ignore it but could not keep the laughter from bubbling up again as she said, "You've really mucked it up now."

"Well, if you'd just tell me where it was, I could get it off," he sighed in exasperation, "you Gryffindors really are obnoxious."

"Now I'm really not going to help you. You can't just insult a person and then expect them to help you out." She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him as best she could as he began to wipe furiously at his face. _He is just so cute when he's flustered but he won't be for long after he's done rubbing his face raw. _

"For Merlin's sake!" she exclaimed as she licked her thumb, grabbed his face, and cleaned off his cheek. The look of shock on Draco's face couldn't hold a candle to the look of embarrassment that passed over Philomena's as she realized what she had just done. A few seconds later she smiled at him then realizing she was still holding onto his face blushed fiercely, released him, and immediately went back to work. Upon noticing that he was still staring at her she explained, "Sorry, I have little brothers. I think it's one of the cleaning method moms use, but it's quite effective and so I began using it on the little dirt devils myself. Besides, it didn't look like you were going to get it off by yourself. Did you forget that you could do magic?" To her surprise, Draco's face crinkled up into a genuine smile and he laughed at her, "Did you?"

Suddenly a strange expression passed over his face; he coughed as if to cover up the laughter, and went back to his work, as did Philomena. It was the strangest thing; the look on his face had almost looked like fear. However, Philomena quickly dismissed that idea and chalked it up to her brain being fatigued. With Quidditch, schoolwork, and hanging out with the Trio, her schedule was extremely full. _Maybe my brain is confusing my feelings for Draco as a way to help me cope with all this stress. Life would be easier without having to deal with hating someone other than Voldemort and my brain is trying to get me to relax. _ She shook her head and rolled her eyes at that thought, now she new her brain was tired if it had come up with that horrible explanation.

After that first incident in the library, she tried in earnest to stop feeling warm and fuzzy around Draco. However, it seemed that that was not going to happen. It was as if someone nice was slowly beginning to possess Draco. He began to laugh more without clamming up in shock. He had been slower to provoke her in classes. He had stopped using the word 'mudblood' around her altogether and cut back on his taunting of the Golden Trio. They slowly began to form what her brain had told her to hope was a friendship. She wasn't opposed to the new changes in Draco. It was just making it harder for her to stop crushing on him when he was actually being a civil person.

The situation was only made worse when she began to notice that Hermione was beginning to act the same way around her that she acted around Draco. Her relationship with the Gryffindor Trio had blossomed greatly, which was both blessing and curse. Philomena made the perfect addition to the Trio because not only was she the same age as them but she was also a girl. Now, just as Harry and Ron could rely on each other as guys, Hermione had Philomena to rely on. During one of their girl talks, Hermione had actually taken a good look at Philomena to find that the girl truly was beautiful. She looked good even when she had just woken up, which was something that could not be said about many girls. She was an extremely nice person and very caring. She had kept her word about the hair products and two weeks after that first day of class a large basket of beauty products being carried by several owls landed in front of Hermione, much to her surprise. When she hugged her thanks to Philomena, Hermione noticed a slight tingle race through her body, and that's when she knew she was beginning to like Philomena as more than a friend. After awhile, the hugs began to last a little bit too long, and that was when Philomena knew too.

She was horribly confused as to how to handle the situation. She was falling for someone she should hate while someone was falling for her that she could actually see herself with. This was another cause of confusion for Philomena because she had never actually been in a relationship with anyone before. She had however been attracted to both sexes in the past so she assumed that she was bisexual. But, having never acted on any of her previous crushes, she really had no idea. She thought that both Hermione and Draco were attractive in their own ways, but at the moment, she was not gushing hormonally over Hermione the way she was about Draco. Philomena was currently pondering her predicament as she ate breakfast before the first Quidditch match. She was more nervous than she usually was before sporting events even though it was against Hufflepuff. She tried to calm down by telling herself that she wasn't really nervous, it was just the stress of everything else and the anticipation of her first match at Hogwarts. Harry noticed how tense she was acting and tried to distract her, "So how've your Potions meetings been going? Has Malfoy been behaving himself?"

The second she heard him say Potions she stopped chewing, then she heard him say Malfoy and she almost choked.

"That bad then? I really do feel sorry for you," said Ron.

"You shouldn't, you're partnered with a girl stuck in a man's body," she grimaced, "at least Malfoy looks like a boy."

"Yeah, but still, it's Malfoy," Ron said with a shrug. Both Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement before Harry stood.

"Come on guys, lets head to the pitch," he said and the rest of the Gryffindor team began to stand as the Hufflepuff team exited the Great Hall.

**An Hour and a Half Later**

The Gryffindors were celebrating in the Common Room. The Quidditch team had just brought home its first victory of the school year and no one was as pleased about it as Philomena. The game was a bit more difficult than she had expected it to be and had barely managed not to kill herself at one point in the game. The Hufflepuff beater, James Smithy, had rocketed a bludger at her back as she streamed towards the goal. The bludger had been a bit off but still made contact with her left shoulder blade, which caused her to drop the ball and slip sideways off her broom. She held on however, swung herself back onto her broom, and continued playing. Next to Harry's spectacular catch of the snitch, that had been the most exciting part of the game.

Philomena was currently sitting next to Hermione on the couch by the fire and the boys were off somewhere recounting the game in a first person point-of-view to the other sixth year boys for the hundredth time. They had been talking about the first Hogsmeade trip next weekend.

"What do you usually do in Hogsmeade?" asked Philomena.

"Well, the boys usually drag me to Zonko's, the joke shop, to get some stuff. I always drag them to the bookstore. We used to go to the Shrieking Shack, but as you know that has deep connections to Sirius and the other Marauders so we don't go there anymore. There's lots of interesting things there, if it's your first time exploring the village," Hermione explained.

"You sound as if you aren't looking forward to it."

"It's not that. It's just that we've been going there for three years now. I suppose the novelty of it all has worn off."

"Well, I have some extra money so I think I'll buy something for my parents so that they'll be more open to letting me spend Christmas with you guys."

"You're going to bribe your parents?"

"Yeah, it works on some. I figured it couldn't hurt to try."

"Well, I suppose not. Well I'm going to head to the library and work on some homework. I should be back by the time you guys head to dinner, if not I'll just meet you there."

"Okay, what time should I tell the guys we are going?"

"Tell them around 5 pm."

"I will."

Hermione walked through the still whooping crowd and up the stairs. A few minutes later, she came back down with her book bag in hand and exited the portrait. The party began to die down right around 5 o'clock and Harry, Ron, and Philomena began to walk towards the Great Hall. Hermione was already seated at the Gryffindor table and waved them over excitedly.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" asked Harry.

"Guess what I saw being posted by the library?"

"Um, I have no idea," said Ron.

"A poster for a formal Halloween Ball!" Hermione shrieked.

"Really?" asked Philomena, her excitement growing by the seconds.

"Yes. It's going to take place on Halloween, which fortunately lands on a Friday this year. All students can go but the first years through third years have a curfew of 11 pm. The fourth years through seventh years can be there until the ball ends at 2:00 am."

"Oh I'm so excited! Good thing there's a Hogsmeade trip beforehand. We get to go dress shopping now!"

Both boys groaned loudly interrupting their happy conversation.

"What?" Philomena and Hermione asked in unison.

"The last ball we went to didn't turn out so well. I'm not exactly looking forward to the hunt for a decent date again," was Ron's reply.

"And I'm not a good dancer," stated Harry with a wince.

"Well, it's a good thing you are with Ginny then. Either she'll forgive you for crushing her feet all night, or she'll teach you how to dance. Ron, you just need to get over yourself and ask a girl before it's too late," said Philomena matter-of-factly.

"For once, I agree with Fred and George. Better ask soon or all the good ones will have gone," said Hermione.

"Wow, never thought this day would come. Hermione is admitting that she is in agreement with the twins," said Harry and started laughing. Hermione just rolled her eyes and she and Philomena began a detailed discussion of what kind of dresses they wanted to get.

**Two weeks later**

When the Hogsmeade weekend finally came, Ginny, Hermione, and Philomena were beside themselves over the ball. The happy trio dragged Harry and Ron all over the village. Stopping first in the bookstore, Hermione and Philomena browsed the aisles looking for anything and nothing in particular. Philomena was walking slightly ahead of Hermione but she knew that the pensive brunette was looking at her not the books. She stopped abruptly and turned around, "Hermione is there something that you would like to say…"

"Er, I don't know what you mean," she replied breathlessly. _Oh my god! She knows I like her! How does she know that? Calm down, relax, maybe she's just guessing._

"I know that you like me."

"How did you know?"

"Women's intuition and I'm very perceptive."

"Oh, well, erm, I, well," Hermione stuttered.

"Are you always this articulate?" Philomena began to laugh.

"Sorry, what I meant to say was, if you weren't already going to the dance with someone, would you like to go with me. Just as friends."

"That would be very nice."

"I suppose we have to get coordinating dresses now."

"Yes, it'll be terribly cliché and totally cool."

"Or not, I'm going to find the others. Are you coming?"

"No, I'm going to look for a book but I will meet you guys at the clothing store in a little bit."

"Okay, see you later," Hermione said with a wave and exited the store. Philomena continued to browse the aisle that she was in feeling an uncomfortable knot grow in her stomach. If she were a better person, she would not have just done that. She tried to excuse her actions by telling herself that they were going as friends. _Yes, we are going as friends. Hermione said so herself. Nothing is expected to come of this. But what if it does? _She was pulled from her musings buy a smug sort of laugh that came from the aisle next to the one she was in and looking through the shelves she noticed the most piercing pair of silvery grey eyes staring back at her.

"What are you stalking and eavesdropping now, Malfoy?"

"No, not per se but if you are going to have personal conversations like the one you just had with Granger in a public arena, expect that those around you will hear."

"Well, you act as if we were yelling it from the tree tops or something."

"You might as well have. Why are you going with her? I never figured you for the same sex relationship type. Not that it matters either way."

"Well, I don't exactly know what type I am," she replied quietly. She mentally kicked herself for engaging in this conversation. _What am I doing?! Why am I telling __**him**__, of all people?_

"You could have at least started your experimentation with someone better than Granger. Someone with experience," his eyebrow hitched a little.

"Yeah, sure. I have to go get my dress. We still on for tomorrow?"

"Yes, we are."

Philomena turned to leave and just as she was exiting the store, Draco emerged from the aisle and said, "I wasn't teasing you back there. I really do think you can do better." He almost sounded sincere, sad even. _Yeah, right. There I go again making up stuff._

She hoped she wouldn't run into Malfoy again that day and was pleased but not surprised that the conversation she'd had with him hadn't upset her all that much. When she made it to the store, Harry had already finished getting his robes; Ron was fortunately still able to fit in the ones his brothers had bought him last year. Ginny had on a lovely emerald green dress that fit all her curves just right. She had dyed her hair a more fierce red over the summer apparently and the new color paired with the dress made her look like a dragon goddess or a forest nymph. Hermione tried on a blood red strapless dress, but insisted that it was the wrong color for her skin tone. The next dress the tailor brought her was lilac and she turned it away right off because it would just be a repeat of the Yule Ball gown. The last dress she tried on was perfect. The dress was a sophisticated one-shoulder gown in a vibrant teal blue. It had two pleated straps over the shoulder that separated in the back with a flowing pleated skirt. Then the tailor looked at Philomena, gave her a quick up-and-down, and grabbed a few things from the rack. The first dress was a horrid color and the second was not the most flattering on her super curvy body. Just as it had been for Hermione, the third dress she tried on was perfect. It fit her like a glove and showed off her body in a sultry manner not to mention the way it complemented her naturally sun-kissed skin tone. It was a ruby red low cut halter with a gold, jeweled accent, crisscrossed straps in the back, and wrapped around the waist. Philomena felt amazing in the dress and bought it as soon as the tailor shortened the hem. The ladies then spent the next hour in jewelry stores and shoe stores trying to find the right heels and the right earrings and necklaces to accentuate their necklines. By the time they got back to the school, they only wanted to eat dinner and go to bed, which is exactly what they did.

**Halloween**

The teachers tried to maintain order, but none of the students had classes on their minds. The Halloween Ball was that night and the anticipation in the air was so strong it was as if residual magic was crackling in the air. Of course, it wasn't just the ball that had everyone so excited. There had been flyers going around the school boasting an "Open to All Houses Party" in the Room of Requirement. Whoever had created the flyers had taken extreme caution in the distribution. If anyone other than a student looked at the piece of parchment, it looked as if it were blank. The flyer mentioned music, dancing, snacks, and an assortment of liquor. Admittance would be based on age and whether or not you had the galleons for the cover. It seemed almost too good to be true, but many students were planning on attending.

When their last class let out in the afternoon, the students went to their respective rooms, laid their outfits out, and discussed possible hairstyles until it was time for dinner. The students all gathered in the Great Hall at 6:30 pm and ate dinner together. Dumbledore stood to address the school, "As you all know, the Halloween Ball is scheduled for this evening. I expect all of you to be respectful of each other and handle yourselves in a decent manner. As for after-ball activities, there are none scheduled. The teachers and myself will expect all students to be back in their respective houses by 2:10 am. That is all, tuck in."

"He knows everything!" Ron exclaimed as quietly as he could.

"Yes, he does, but I guarantee you he'll be in his office chuckling about the inter-house party that is raging right under his nose," responded Harry.

"I agree, he and the sorting hat have been telling us that we need to be a unified Hogwarts and, well, if it requires a few shots of Firewhiskey to get us to be cordial to each other, what the hell?" said Hermione.

Ron, Harry, and Ginny just stared open mouthed at her for a few minutes. They had never heard her be so accepting of flagrant disregard for the headmaster's rules. It was a pleasant change to say the least.

"Better close those mouths before a fly gets in," teased Philomena and the three immediately snapped their jaws shut and began laughing.

"So, I guess that means we're all going?" asked Harry. Everyone nodded in agreement except Ron.

"Can't, don't have the money and I don't know if Lavender will want to go," Ron answered before they could even ask why.

"Oh get off it Ron. I found out about the party from Lavender!" said Ginny in a huff.

"Still don't have any galleons to pay for us."

Everyone dug in their pockets and pulled out what change they had and tossed it to Ron. When he began to protest, Hermione said, "Now you can go with us and be able to pay for Lavender. But don't expect a whole bunch of really nice expensive presents this Christmas."

"Does that mean no books?" he asked as he scraped the money off the table and put it in his pocket.

Hermione glared at him for a second, and then said, "Just for that, I'm buying you a really big, boring book for Christmas."

Ron just shook his head in exasperation and thanked them for the early Christmas present. None of the girls ate much in fear that their dresses wouldn't fit as well with full bellies, but the guys gorged themselves. After dinner, they all made their way up to Gryffindor Tower to get ready. An hour and a half later, the three girls were making their way down the stairs to meet the boys. The boys were talking to Dean and Seamus with their backs to the stairs. Dean noticed them first and stopped mid-sentence to stare at them. Harry and Ron turned following his line of sight and saw them as well.

Harry was hypnotized. He faintly heard Ron, Dean, and Seamus complimenting the girls on their appearances but he couldn't formulate thoughts let alone words or complete sentences. The only thing he knew at that moment was Ginny. When he finally regained coherent thought, swung her up into a hug and planted a long, gentle kiss on her lips. Ron's voice broke through the happy moment, "Get a room, mate!" Ginny began to laugh as Harry put her down.

"You look so beautiful. I always think you're beautiful but tonight you look even more so," he whispered in her ear.

"You don't look half bad yourself Harry," she giggled and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, "You clean up very nicely."

After Lavender finally made her way to the Common Room, the group began to make their way to the Great Hall. It was just after 8:30 pm, the dance had just begun, but the Hall was already full of people. They walked in and went straight to the dance floor because The Weird Sisters were singing their latest hit. They were on the dance floor all night minus the times they went to get punch to cool off. Philomena was no longer feeling guilty about accepting Hermione's offer because she was having the best night of her life. She had thought that the slow dances would present some sort of awkward moment, but every time one was played, Hermione asked Philomena if she wanted to get a drink. However, there was still something that was bothering her; it was a strange feeling in the back of her mind. It was the feeling you get when you sense that someone is watching you, but when she looked around, no one was looking at her. She wasn't going to let the feeling ruin her night though or if someone was actually watching her, she didn't want to disappoint them with a boring show. When the last slow song was about to be played, Hermione began to move off the dance floor towards the refreshments. Philomena grabbed her by the elbow and said, "Where are you going?"

"I figured you might be thirsty again."

"It's the last slow song of the night; don't waste it drinking nasty punch."

"But--" Hermione began but was cut off by Philomena.

"Come on. As friends?" she asked and held her hand out.

Hermione smiled as she took her hand, they walked over to where Ron and Harry were, and began to dance with each other. A few of the couples stopped dancing to stare at them. Hermione noticed and began to tense up.

"Relax, what are they going to do?" Philomena said to Hermione.

"Nothing I suppose. I'm more worried about you. You aren't gay."

"Well, actually, I don't know what I am," Philomena confessed.

"What do you mean?"

"I've never had a significant other. But I have been attracted to people of both sexes before."

"Well that doesn't tell you much. You need to experience something romantic to know for sure. I mean Ron and I have always been attracted to each other but when we finally acted on it, I realized that was not what I wanted. No offense to Ron; he's an amazing kisser."

Smiling, Philomena nodded and wondered whether Ron still had unrequited feelings for Hermione. She looked over at him as he was dancing with Lavender. Her face was rested against his chest and his chin was resting gently on the top of her head. They looked great together and she hoped that something sparked between them. The song ended and the couple separated momentarily to clap. The Weird Sisters then played a medley of some covers that they had done of Muggle bands to end the night on an up beat. They played Love Shack by the B-52's, Anyway You Want It by Journey, Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet, and Elevation by U2. The students cheered them on as they began saying thank you and goodnight, but the professors began to usher them out of the Great Hall so that they could begin cleaning. The students began to break off in small groups heading to the Room of Requirement in one of the four ways listed on the back of the flyer. When the Gryffindors reached the door, they began to pace back and forth thinking of a place where they could all party and have a great time. The door opened up into a hallway where there was an age line and a large bucket with a slot in the top. They each took their turn stepping across the line and placing their money into the bucket. When they finished, a door at the end of the hallway appeared and coming from it were the sounds of a party.

"I guess we passed. Let's get crunk!" shouted Philomena.

"Crunk?" asked Harry.

"It's like a combination of crazy and drunk. Basically just going wild and having a good time," Philomena explained.

"Oh, I'm so with that idea," said Ron, "Let's get crunk!"

With that, they opened the door to find the most surprising array of students all in one room laughing and drinking together. Seamus walked up to them holding a tray of Firewhiskey shots and they each took one.

"Drink up, mates," he said as they took the shots. Philomena and Hermione coughed, Ginny and Ron turned red, and Harry and Lavender's eyes went watery.

"Those are rough, I think I'll stick to the fruity drinks or beer," said Hermione.

"Yeah, you say that now, but after you get drunk I bet you'll be begging for another one," Seamus said with a laugh as he walked off to get another shot from the bar.

They had been there for roughly an hour and the entire party was trashed. There were drinking games being played all over the room, some people were dancing while others were singing, loudly and off key. Philomena had just finished chugging her beer when the door opened again and the seemingly already inebriated Draco Malfoy sauntered in followed by Blaise Zabini and a few other Slytherin males whose names she did not know. He looked her right in the face and smiled. She smiled back forgetting that they were not alone in the library. Harry noticed and asked, "Why are you smiling at Malfoy?" Then noticing that Draco was smiling at her and making his way over he said, "Better question is why is he smiling at you and why is he coming over here?"

She just shrugged and hoped he would be on his very best behavior.

"Hello Mena. How do you like the party so far?" he slurred.

"I'm drunk so I guess I like it alright."

He nodded, walked over to the bar, and mixed himself a rum and coke. The Gryffindors were speechless. Not only had he posed a question to a Gryffindor that was both relevant and civil, he hadn't insulted her or anyone else in the room and neither did any of the other Slytherins. When he turned around, they were staring at him in shock. He put on his best look of fear and put his hands to his face, "I don't have ink on my face again?"

She laughed so hard she fell off her stool. He just shook his head and walked over to an empty corner to wait for his housemates to finish making their drinks.

"So what was that all about?" asked Ron.

"We were taking notes in the library one evening and he scratched his face and got ink on his cheek and when he went to wipe it off he used the same inky hand and only made it worse. I sort of licked my thumb and cleaned the ink off."

They were now staring at her like they had just been staring at Draco. Ron spoke up first, "You used the mom spit technique…on Draco Malfoy?!"

Philomena nodded and he continued, "And he didn't kill you?"

"I'm still here aren't I? Actually, he laughed. He laughs a lot in private."

They couldn't believe what they were hearing. A Gryffindor, one of their closest friends, had seemingly befriended a Slytherin, one of their worst enemies.

"I don't believe it. I think you need to be careful around him, Mena. Who knows what he could actually be up to," Harry warned. Ginny nodded her head in agreement. Hermione had this almost wounded look on her face as she looked from Philomena over to Draco who was engaged in a conversation with his housemates, looking smug as usual.

Another hour and a half later, the party had turned into an out of control night of debauchery. Some sixth year Ravenclaw had gotten it into her mind that a striptease was a good idea. She climbed up on the bar, started dancing and halfway through taking her shirt off she slipped off the bar and knocked over a bunch of stools. She was fine because she was so drunk she didn't even feel the fall. Ron and Lavender had been attached at the face for a good thirty minutes now and only released each other to come up for air. Harry and Ginny had been dancing so dirty they looked like they were having sex with their clothes on. Hermione had passed out with her head in Philomena's lap and was now drooling. Draco had only moved from his seat in the corner to fix himself another drink. He hadn't said anything else to Philomena yet but kept bringing her beers. On his last trip to the bar, he stumbled over some kid and almost fell on both Hermione and Philomena.

"Sorry about that. Kid was in my way," he gave her a lopsided grin, then noticing Hermione added, "She's drooling on your crotch."

He pulled a face and then started cracking up hysterically. The Slytherins looked over at him with worry and the one named Blaise came over.

"Hey, calm down Drake. Maybe we should go," he said as he hooked his arm through Draco's and tried get him to stand. Draco yanked his arm away and stumbled back a few paces, "I'm not going anywhere. I can do what I want."

"I never said you couldn't Draco, but now is not the time and this is not the place," Blaise said subtly.

"Why's that, Blaise? What are you worried about? Only people we can trust are here," his voice dropped to an angry whisper that was so low Philomena had to strain to hear him over the music.

"I know that but you are causing a scene."

"And they aren't?!" he shouted as he pointed to Ron and Lavender and Harry and Ginny who had all stopped their activities to glare at him.

"Back off, Malfoy," Harry ground out through is teeth.

He continued, "I'm tired of this shit." Philomena looked at him closely. He looked the opposite of happy drunk right now. He looked strained. His usually calm exterior looked like it would crack at any moment.

"I think I am going to go," he said to Blaise, then rounded on the rest of the party, "I hope you all had a great time." He turned on his heel and stormed towards the door, but just as he reached it, he turned and looked at Philomena and said, "I tried." With that he left, his fellow Slytherins also leaving behind him. Philomena just sat there with Hermione on her lap staring at the door. She was utterly torn, she wanted to go find him but she couldn't just leave her friends. _What was that all about? He seemed fine one minute and the next he looked so upset. And, what the hell did he mean by he tried? _Just then, it hit her, "Oh my God!"

Hermione shot straight up, swayed in a circle, and bent over the edge of the couch and threw up into a bucket that had appeared out of nowhere. Ron stopped making out with Lavender, looked at Hermione hurling over the arm of the couch and said, "And on that cue, I think it's time we take our leave." Harry carried Hermione up to Gryffindor tower but Ginny and Philomena had to carry her to the dorm. Ginny got her out of her dress and hung it up while Philomena put her pajamas on and tucked her into bed. They changed clothes and went back downstairs to the common room, which was beginning to fill with the return of the Room of Requirement partygoers. Harry and Ron sat on the couch in front of the fireplace in their pajamas. Ginny sat down in Harry's lap and Philomena sat down on one of the large armchairs.

"He planned that party," she said.

"Who?" asked Ginny.

"Draco Malfoy and I think those Slytherins he brought with him helped."

"How'd you come to that?"

"Well this will probably sound really weird but you know how I said he's been laughing a lot in our Potions meetings," they all nodded and she continued, "Well, I think he's changing. I think that he might have figured out that the side he's grown up to be on, isn't the side he wants to be on."

"That sounds like a bit of a stretch, Mena," said Harry.

"I don't think so. He mentioned something about the people he trusted being at the party. Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson weren't there. The three people he spends the most of his time with, the people you'd think he trusted the most weren't there. You don't think that's at all odd?"

"She does kinda have a point guys," said Ginny, when the boys began to open their mouths in protest, she continued, "Think about it. That'd be like anyone of us throwing a party and then showing up with some Gryffindors we don't ever hang out with."

"Okay, that would be weird, but it's Malfoy we're talking about here. He's a sneaky, slimy git. I just don't think it's possible for him to do something so nice," said Harry.

"Now it really makes sense," said Philomena.

"What do you mean?" asked Ron.

"After Harry yelled at him, he said he was tired of this shit and that he tried. He's trying to be better but none of us believe him to be a better person."

"There's a good reason behind that. His father is in jail for being a Death Eater, for trying to kill us last year. No one wants to be close to someone who could just be faking nice to get to Harry or even you, Mena, and send you off to You-Know-Who."

"We can't trust him to change the person he's been for 5 years in 3 months," added Harry, "like I said earlier, you need to watch yourself around him, Mena. Don't let your guard down."

Philomena nodded even though she wanted to defend Draco. She believed that he had changed and she would tell him so tomorrow at their meeting. Ginny leaned in and whispered something into Harry's ear that made him blush. They excused themselves, ran up the steps, and disappeared into the sixth year boys' dormitory. Ron sighed, "I guess I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight."

"Why's that? Surely they won't be in your bed as well as Harry's," she said with a laugh.

"No, they won't be in my bed. But, she's still my little sister and what I don't know, or hear, won't scar me for life."


	5. And So It Begins

**Disclaimer**: I'm tired of writing these bloody things every chapter so from now on assume that if it's something you've heard about in a Harry Potter book, I don't own it.

**Chapter 5**: And So It Begins

Philomena was not able to tell Draco that she was on his side at their meeting because he did not show up. She sat in the library doing research alone for an hour before she finally gave in to her anger and stormed down to the Great Hall to eat. There he was sitting at the Slytherin table looking smug as usual; she wanted to smack him. Walking with a purpose, she headed right over to his table and tapped him roughly on the shoulder. The Slytherins looked at her with disgust and shock, no Gryffindor ever dared to approach their table let alone be bold enough to touch Draco Malfoy. He turned in his chair to see who it was who had tapped him and upon seeing Philomena's face, he grimaced and said, "What do you want?"

"Oh nothing really, just wanted to stop by and chat. Hello, what do you think I want? Why did you leave me to do research alone in the library when you were supposed to meet me there an hour ago?" she yelled at him.

"Well I've decided that we no longer need to do our research together anymore. We can meet once on the weekends, when it doesn't conflict with Quidditch, and compile our information."

"Can we talk out in the hall for a minute?"

"I don't see why we would need to do that—"

Philomena cut him off, "NOW!"

He rolled his eyes, "I suppose I could if it will stop you from rupturing my ear drums."

They left the Great Hall, walked out the front doors, and sat on one of the benches nearby. Philomena just looked at him as if he was an alien. When she continued to stare in silence, Draco spoke up, "If you brought me out here to stare at me, you could have done that in the Great Hall. It would have been less obvious and a hell of a lot warmer."

"I'm sorry, I was just wondering what the hell happened to you in the course of a night? You are acting like the ass you used to act like."

"If you are just going to insult me," he made to get up but was halted by Philomena's hand on his elbow.

"Please, what's wrong? You seemed so upset at the party last night."

"That's none of your concern," he tried to jerk his arm from her hand but she just held on tighter and yanked him back down onto the bench.

"Listen here, stop sulking, and acting like a prick. If you keep this up, no one will believe that you've changed, including me."

"What are you talking about?" Draco dropped the sneer and looked off towards the lake.

"I know you threw that party," his head snapped towards her, "I think I know why you did it."

Draco was fuming. _How dare she assume I threw that party! What does she know about anything? _He thought to himself angrily.

"Look, I've no idea what you're talking about. You should keep your nose out of other people's business."

Philomena looked at him again. He looked mad as hell, but he didn't sound that way. She hesitated for a moment, and then grabbed his hand in hers. He looked at his hand in hers and a chill went through his body as he looked into her eyes. _Stop it Malfoy and get a grip on yourself. She's with that lesbot Granger and she's a bloody Gryffindor. A bloody hot Gryffindor…_ He shook his head ever so slightly; he had not been listening to what Philomena was saying.

"Are you listening to me?" she asked softly.

"No, I wasn't. What did you say?"

"I said that you can't just give up. Keep fighting for what you want. You've changed, Draco. I can see it, but if you want to go back to everyone hating you, I'll leave you alone. We can study on our own and get together every once in a while to put our notes together. Owl me later." She pulled her hand from his and got up to walk back into the castle. Her eyes were beginning to water up and she quickened her pace so that no one would see.

Later that evening as she was in her room getting ready for bed she heard a tapping at the window. She walked over and immediately recognized Draco's owl beating a syncopated rhythm on the glass. She opened the window, ruffled his feathers, and gave him some owl treats as she untied the note attached to his leg. The bird flew off before she even opened the note, which was clearly in Draco's fancy script,

There will be no need to meet as often as we have been. It is putting a strain on my other studies and I need to focus on my other classes as well. I work better alone anyway. We can meet next week to start brewing.

Malfoy

She crumpled up the note and threw into the wastebasket angrily. _Well at least now, I can stop feeling this way about him. He'll be back to his usual self in no time and I will go back to hating him. Perfect. _She climbed into bed and went to sleep not at all looking forward to finishing this project with Draco anymore.

It had been a week and a half since she had received that note from Draco and she had only seen him in class and in passing never saying more than was necessary. He had changed completely. He wasn't the boy that everyone at Hogwarts had gotten used to him being, but he wasn't the boy that Philomena had brought out of him either. He had become a shell of himself, completely focused on his grades and nothing else. Even the Slytherins were shying away from their fearless leader, all but those that were with him the night of the party.

Philomena however had stopped obsessing over him. At least that's what she had told herself. She pushed her feelings aside and tried to move on. Forcing her heart to see Draco the way that he used to be and mustering as much ill will towards him as she could. She made herself quit being pro-Draco and tried to go on to better things. By this time, Hermione had confessed that she liked her as more than a friend and at first Philomena was wary of getting into a relationship with her. However, after awhile her resistance caved and she and Hermione began dating. Of course, both girls agreed that since this was all very new to them, they would take things slowly, only going so far as to hold hands and give each other pecks on the cheek. They became study partners helping each other with their potions research, proofreading passages of each other's essays, and the like. They were currently sitting in the library reading texts on their respective potions. Philomena yawned and stretched her arms, "Let's take a break. My eyes are starting to cross."

"We just started like 30 minutes ago," Hermione whispered with a grin.

"I know, I've got ADD, and I need frequent breaks so that I don't get distracted from the task at hand," Philomena responded with a puppy dog face.

"Okay, okay, you win. You fight dirty; you know I can't resist that face."

"I know. So where do you want to have lunch next Hogsmeade trip?"

"That's two weekends away. Why are you worrying about it now?"

"Because I'm stalling for time and I'm sure you've already thought about it considering it will be out first official date as an official couple."

"Ah, well yes I have thought about it some. There's this new café in Hogsmeade and I was thinking we could try it out"

"That sounds awesome; I was already getting tired of The Three Broomsticks."

"You've only been there once!"

"Yeah, well, uh," Philomena stuttered trying to find an excuse.

"Are you always this articulate?"

"Ha. Ha. I don't know why I didn't like it. I guess I just have to get used to the types of places you hang out. They are so much different from the ones in Connecticut."

"That makes sense. Ready to get back to work?"

"Ugh, do I have to?"

"Yes," said Hermione as she leaned in and gave Philomena a peck on the cheek.

"Well I suppose if that's my reward I can do a little more research."

Hermione just shook her head and chuckled a little to herself. She often found it hard to believe that she and Philomena were a couple. It wasn't that she didn't think they should be together; it was more of the fact that she was never this lucky. She had found someone within months of coming out, someone who was very similar to herself, and got along with her friends. It was almost too perfect. She was a bright witch and she had noticed the fact that Philomena and Draco had feelings for each other. It worried her to think that one day Draco would become the "nice guy" and steal Philomena away from her. _Yeah, right. Never in a million years would Draco ever be considered the "nice guy". Well maybe if he was the last man on earth and there was no one to compare him to. _She snorted to herself and went back to her work.

The first snow of the year had arrived and the castle seemed to become twice as drafty as usual. The Gryffindors were sitting in the Great Hall eating their dinner. They were talking about the upcoming Quidditch match against Hufflepuff.

"We'll definitely have the advantage. They don't play well in wet weather," said Harry.

"Yeah it's like they forget how to play," Ron said has he laughed.

"Oh come now, it's not that bad," Hermione added.

Ron, Harry and Ginny looked at her funny. "What? Have I got a pea up my nose?" she asked.

"No, it's just that you usually don't join into our conversations on Quidditch."

"Well, that is true, but that's because it's usually talk about professional Quidditch, which I can admit I know nothing about."

Ron and Harry adopted matching looks of horror and said, "What! Our Hermione doesn't know something?"

"Lay off guys," said Philomena with a cough.

"Yeah what she said," finished Hermione then looking over at Philomena, she noticed the girl was not looking so good. She was a bit pale and she looked like she was sweating a bit.

"You alright, love? You don't look so good."

"Actually, no I don't feel that good. I haven't been sleeping well and one minute I'm hot the next I'm freezing. I'm used to central air and heating, I think I've come down with something."

"Come with me, I'll take to you the hospital wing."

Philomena made to stand up but as she was stepping over the bench, she got lightheaded and passed out right into Hermione.

"Mena? Mena!" Hermione yelled trying to shake her awake.

Ron got up, picked her up into his arms, and followed by Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Lavender they headed out of the Great Hall and up to Madam Pomfrey. They were so worried and focused on Philomena that they didn't notice the pair of silver blue eyes that was watching them as they ran from the Hall. They burst through the doors calling for her. She came out of her office looking frantic, "Yes dears what's the matter?"

"She just fainted while she was trying to stand."

"Has she fainted any other times?"

"No, not that we know of. She didn't mention feeling dizzy or anything. She did mention that she wasn't feeling that well though," said Harry.

"Yeah she mentioned that she hadn't been sleeping well and that she was hot one minute and freezing the next," said Hermione her face stricken with worry.

"Alright, let me run some tests. Wait outside and I will come and get you when I am finished."

"But--" started Hermione but was cut off when Madam Pomfrey fixed her with a look that meant her word was final.

They all shuffled out of the hospital wing and went to sit on the chair in the hall to wait. Lavender kissed Ron goodbye and excused herself to go work on some homework that was due later that day.

"Catch up with me later and let me know how she's doing."

"I will, love," said Ron.

"Look at you, getting all lovey dovey, Ronnekins," teased Ginny.

"Oh hush," said Ron blushing fiercely.

About ten minutes later, the door opened and Hermione was on her feet at once.

"Calm down Miss Granger. Mena is all right, she has walking pneumonia. Has she complained of being more tired than usual?"

"No but she's not one to complain. She probably just shrugged it off as being stressed out," said Hermione.

"Ah, well I've given her some potions that should help with the cough, the fever, and the chills. You may go in and see her but only for a few minutes as you all have class and she needs her rest."

They all followed her back into the wing, where they spotted a very pale and sweaty Philomena laying on one of the beds with her head propped up on several pillows. She smiled faintly at them as them as they grabbed some chairs and sat around her.

"How you feeling?" asked Hermione grabbing her hand.

"Much better now, those potions Madam Pomfrey gave me really did the trick."

"Yeah she doesn't mess around with healing. She knows her stuff," added Harry.

"Too right mate can't tell you how many times she's fixed our lot up," Ron said laughing.

"I can imagine considering all the wild and crazy adventures you all go on," her voice gave out towards the end of the sentence and she closed her eyes and sighed. Just then Madam Pomfrey walked out from her office, "All right now, off you go."

They all said their goodbyes and promised to come and visit later on that evening.

"Oh no you lot won't, she needs her rest. You can come see her sometime tomorrow."

They all opened their mouths to protest but upon seeing the withering look on Madam Pomfrey's face they snapped their jaws shut quickly, saying goodbye again as they exited the room. She went back into her office and busied herself until it was time to give Philomena her evening potions. She came out carrying a small tray with several vials on it. Setting the tray down on Philomena's nightstand she said, "All right dear, take these potions and you should be set for the night."

"What are they?" she asked as she gulped down the first one handed to her.

"That one was to suppress your cough through the night, this next one is to help keep your temperature regulated, and this one is so that you can sleep through the night."

Philomena had barely heard her finish the sentence before she felt warm all over and her eyelids felt so heavy she could not resist closing them anymore. Madam Pomfrey smiled to herself while gathering the vials upon the tray, when she heard the door open again.

"I thought I told you lot," she started to fuss but instead of seeing a group of Gryffindors she saw one lonely Slytherin, Draco Malfoy.

"Oh, sorry dear, I thought you were someone else. What is it that's ailing you, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Nothing, I just came to see how, um, how she was," his eye trailed over to the sleeping form of Philomena.

"I didn't know you were acquainted."

"We aren't, we are working on a Potions project together and I was just wondering how long she would be out."

"Oh, well she has walking pneumonia. She should be out of bed in a couple of days."

"Good, thank you," and with that he turned and exited the hospital wing leaving Madam Pomfrey with a knowing smile on her face.

Just as promised Philomena was out of the hospital wing and back in the swing of things before the week was over. She had made a full recovery according to Madam Pomfrey, but for some odd reason she still didn't quite feel like herself. She refused to let any of her friends notice a difference though because the last thing she wanted was them to be worried about her again. Not only that, but she wanted to make sure that she was not in the hospital wing for Gryffindors next Quidditch match or her date with Hermione.

The Quidditch match went just as the Gryffindors expected it would. It had been snowing for about a day and a half now and the Hufflepuff team flew as if it was their first match ever. It had been a long game but only because the golden snitch interestingly enough managed to hide amongst the flurries. When Harry finally caught a glimpse of the snitch, he was so frozen he almost couldn't get his fingers to close around it. Overall, it was a good day as the Gryffindors spent the rest of that evening snuggled up in front of the fire bundled up in blankets.

The next week of classes went by in a whirlwind and before the students knew it, Saturday had arrived. The Gryffindors were in the process of bundling up for the Hogsmeade trip. Hermione was for once excited about this trip because she had a wonderful day planned for just herself and Philomena. However, there was one thing dampening her spirits and that was worry. Philomena had been increasingly distracted the past week and when confronted about it she would smile and say that she was stressed out. Hermione had a horrible feeling that Philomena was not feeling well again but didn't exactly know how to broach the subject with her. If she were sick again, walking around in the snow would not be a good idea. But, she knew that for as strange as Philomena was acting, she would lie through her teeth to go on this date. Therefore, Hermione had just requested that they double up on their layers, to keep her as warm as possible.

Philomena knew that Hermione was worried about her but as she could not put a finger on what it was that was making her feel so, off, she figured it better left unsaid. There was no need to upset Hermione over something that might be as ridiculous as the onset of PMS. She was certain that she wasn't sick again, but she played along with Hermione and made sure to put on double layers to ease her worry. When they had finally finished dressing they made their way downstairs to meet up with the rest of the group before they went on their way. Halfway there, it began to snow, big, wet, fluffy snowflakes. She and Hermione twirled around in them, laughing and the guys began to clump the already present snow on the ground into snowballs tossing them at each other.

"If you guys keep messing around like that, you'll have to walk all the way back to the castle to get a dry change of clothes," warned Hermione.

"Aw, Mione, live a little," whined Ron as he launched a snowball in her direction. She easily avoided it though and teased back, "And that Ronald, is why you are a Keeper not a Chaser." The group burst into laughter as Ron attempted to throw another and missed again.

Hermione had taken Philomena to all the places that she thought would be interesting, including the Shrieking Shack. They stood along the gate staring at the house. The dilapidated old building enthralled Philomena for some odd reason. After awhile they moved on, heading into all the places that they didn't venture into the last time they were there. The café that Hermione had suggested was amazing. It was like the wizarding version of a Starbucks, which of course launched the ladies into an hour-long conversation. Even though Hermione lived in muggle England, she had never actually seen a Starbucks in person. She had always wanted to go into one and try out their crazy named drinks and now she was happy to be getting at least a taste of something very similar to it. Philomena was having an excellent time with Hermione; so much so, the uneasy feeling that had been bothering her for a week seemed to have disappeared completely. They were walking the streets of the little village on their way to meet with Ron, Lavender, Harry, and Ginny when a strong rush of anxiety and apprehension washed over Philomena's body and settled uncomfortably in her chest and stomach. The sensation left her breathless as if someone had just knocked the air out of her. She doubled over trying to catch her breath.

"Mena, what's wrong? Do you need the Hospital Wing?" Hermione asked as she clutched Philomena's arms to help keep her upright.

"No, it's not like that," she started and then looking around with a look of worry, she added hastily, "We have to get out of the open. Something bad is about to happen, something horribly bad."

They began to run to the Three Broomsticks but no sooner had they taken off did Death Eaters begin to apparate into the village. They were blindsided by a group of people running at them, pushing them towards a walkway between several businesses.

"Get down NOW!" yelled Harry as he pushed them into sheltered nook.

"How'd you know to come get us?" asked Hermione. He just rolled his eyes and pointed at his scar. They looked out from their hiding place at the scene that was unfolding before them. They watched in horror as students fled the village, teachers trying to usher them to safety while defending themselves from the onslaught of curses being cast their way. Business owners and patrons alike were all fighting back. Harry turned to them, "We have to help. Remember your DA training." Kissing Ginny, he turned away and readied himself for the fight. Hermione felt Philomena shudder next to her and when she turned she saw that she was breathing very quickly, her hands were clenched at her sides, and she had a glazed look on her face, as if she were looking but not really seeing. Hermione reached out to touch her, but found that her hand could not come closer than a few inches.

"Mena! What's happening?" she shrieked alerting the others to Philomena's state. They all turned towards her in time to see her stand and walk out of the opening. The others tried to grab her but just as Hermione had tried, their hands could not get close enough to grasp her. Her breathing quickened to a pace of hyperventilation and suddenly she was floating up into the sky, her arms outstretched. The magic in the air was crackling in protest as it was pulled towards Philomena. This display of unusual power did not go unnoticed and several Death Eaters attempted to Avada her out of the sky to no avail. The curses just glanced off and ricocheted back towards the casters. The Death Eaters were stunned and stupefied; her mouth had not moved, her wand was nowhere to be seen, she had not made any attempt to shield herself, and yet she was still alive and floating. Definitely not something an ordinary, school-aged child should be capable of. Suddenly, her head fell back and a scream ripped through her mouth. Her voice amplified infinitely, as if there were multiple voices layering over one another. The primal cry of battle was being called but as abruptly as it began, it stopped. A blinding white light exploded from her body causing all those near to cover their eyes. Her body slowly began to lower itself towards the ground and when she had settled, a faint white glow surrounded her body, which was in a low crouching position, and in her hands, were two identical glowing silver blades. Her head came up slowly, her eyes clouded by a white film. She stood slowly taking in the Death Eaters around her and then ran towards them at full speed, her cloak billowing violently behind her as she went, swinging the blades. Immediately they began to throw every curse they knew her way. She never said a word but blocked the beams of death and pain with the blades, slicing and slashing at the Death Eaters as she came upon them.

Ten minutes and it was over. Every Death Eater lay dead or dying on the ground at the feet of Philomena. Utterly confused and scared by what they had just seen, the Gryffindors came from their hiding place and slowly approached Philomena. Hermione reached out to touch her, softly calling her name, "Mena?" Philomena stepped back and swung the blade in her left hand around, stopping the point directly in front of Hermione's chest as a warning. There was no recognition in her eyes as she looked at her friends. Then the glow began to flicker and fade, the blades seemed to retract into her arms, and her eyes cleared. She breathed in slowly, blinking a few times. A small trickle of blood from her nose traced its way down her lip, as she spoke, "Mione?" Her voice was broken, small, and scared. Hermione rushed to Philomena just in time to catch her as she fainted dead away.

**A/N: Okay so I know it is really late to be posting this…but I just could not help myself. I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep when the rest of this chapter began to write itself in my head. It's a bit shorter than I originally thought it would be, but I felt that cutting it where I did was a good idea. I hope you all liked it. Don't forget to review! (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more)**

**Unique-Quirky **


	6. Of Discoveries pt1

**Chapter 6: Of Discoveries (pt.1)**

Philomena was literally at death's door as Professor McGonagall levitated her body back to the castle. Someone was calling her name. The voice floated into her brain and struck a familiar chord of comfort and yearning within her. She wanted to find the person attached to the voice but something was holding her back, keeping her from moving towards it. She struggled against the invisible force, calling out to the voice for help and then nothing. When McGonagall and the other Gryffindors had finally made it back to the castle, Philomena had become deathly pale and her pulse was steadily getting weaker. Madam Pomfrey ran some preliminary scans and stated that Philomena was suffering from what she called "a dangerous draining of magical force." She had never seen anything like it in all her years as a mediwitch. Fortunately, she had been a good student and remembered the theories and subsequent healing techniques needed to save Philomena. She quickly ushered them from the room so that she could save Philomena. The hour that they had waited outside the wing while Madam Pomfrey worked her magic had been the hardest on Hermione. She sat silently, with her knees pulled up to her chin and tears running down her face. Harry and Ron had been trying to comfort her but she was too worried to process the nice gesture. _What if I lose her? Merlin, I've only just begun to know her. Please, please, to whoever is listening let her be okay. _Just as she finished her plea, Madam Pomfrey exited looking grim. Hermione's tears flowed faster, Harry and Ron held her closer, and McGonagall tried to be strong for all of them.

"She is alive," Madam Pomfrey paused as all present released the breathe they didn't realize they were holding.

"How is she?" asked McGonagall.

"She is currently in a magically induced coma to allow her to body and mind to heal."

"Her mind?" asked Hermione.

"Yes the magic that she used today not only drained her physically, it drained her mentally as well. It takes a lot of mental control to sustain such high levels power without doing harm to oneself or those that you do not intend to harm. She is very lucky to be alive quite frankly."

"But she will be alright?" asked Ron.

"Yes, she will be."

"Can we see her?" asked Harry voicing the question that Hermione was thinking.

"Yes, but only for a few minutes."

"I will come back later to check on her, right now I must speak to Dumbledore," McGonagall spoke quickly, giving Madam Pomfrey a curt nod before she turned and rushed to the headmaster's office.

The students all filed in quietly and arranged themselves around Philomena's bed. She was surrounded by a faint glow, just as she was while she was attacking the Death Eaters. Hermione turned to Madam Pomfrey, "Is it safe for us to touch her?"

"You won't be able to, once I got the necessary potions into her, she began to glow and I couldn't get within a few inches of her."

"That's what happened right before she, she," Hermione couldn't bring herself to finish the statement. She couldn't think of Philomena as a murderer, even though she knew that the people who's lives had been taken were horrible, murderers themselves. It was such a harsh reality that she was not ready to see yet. Madam Pomfrey seemed to notice her dilemma and explained, "Yes, I believe the magic that she used earlier is what induced the coma."

"Oh, when you said magically induced, I thought you meant you induced it," replied Hermione.

"No my dear, but even though that magic put her here, I do believe it is trying to heal her as well. It's almost as if she is regenerating. Anyway, I'll leave you with her now, five minutes," with that final warning, she turned and entered her office.

Hermione just stared at her sleeping girlfriend, "She looks like Princess Aurora."

"Who?" asked the boys.

"It's from a muggle children's story called Sleeping Beauty. The princess is cursed by an evil fairy, to die on her 16th birthday, but the good fairies intervene and one of them places a counter-spell on her to awake from an ageless sleep by a kiss from her true love."

"How does it end?" Ron asked.

"The way all fairy tales do, with a happy ending."

Harry began to chuckle to himself then said, "Maybe you should try to kiss her Hermione she might wake up."

Hermione blushed fiercely from the tips of her ears down into the collar of her shirt.

"Wow that's almost as red as Ron gets," Harry added.

The three friends began to laugh in earnest then and Madam Pomfrey came out of her office and shooed them all away.

The three students continued their daily visits staying only as long as Madam Pomfrey would let them. However, when they went to see her that Saturday afternoon, Madam Pomfrey met them outside the doors to the Wing.

"What's the matter Madam Pomfrey is everything alright?" asked Harry.

"Yes, everything is fine, but I cannot permit you to see Mena," her voice was firm.

"Why not? Is something wrong with her?" asked Hermione tears beginning to form.

"No, she is fine but Headmaster Dumbledore feels that it is better that she receive no more visitations until she wakes from the coma. If you want a reason why, you'll have to speak to the Headmaster," with that she turned and entered the wing leaving the three confused Gryffindors standing in the hall by themselves. After a few seconds of silence Harry spoke up, "Well that was, different."

"I know, I don't think a student has ever been isolated like this before," added Hermione.

"I think we should go speak to Dumbledore and get some answers," said Ron slightly annoyed. He grabbed Hermione by the elbow and began walking towards the Headmaster's office.

"Good luck with that, I've been trying for years to get straightforward answers from him," said Harry as he shrugged and jogged off to catch up with his friends.

They had spent a totally of ten seconds standing before the stone gargoyle saying every sweet they could think of that might be the password. At the sound of 'Acid Drops' the gargoyle sprang to life and the students rushed onto the spiral staircase as it began moving. Ron went to knock on the door but Dumbledore opened it before he had the chance.

"Ah, just who I expected to see," Dumbledore smiled and gestured for them to come in, "Lemon Drop anyone?" The students all shook their heads and took their seats.

"Professor, we were just wondering why we aren't allowed to visit Mena anymore," asked Hermione.

"I figured as much, however, I am not at liberty to discuss such matters as I have not discussed them with Mena yet. I daresay she will be quite pleased to have her friends present as it is a life-altering matter and she will need your support."

The three students nodded solemnly and wished Dumbledore a pleasant day. Once they were certain that they were out of earshot, Harry spoke up first, "I told you we wouldn't get any answers from him."

"Well we know it's serious," said Ron.

"Brilliant Captain Obvious, as if the events of the past week weren't enough indication of that fact," Hermione huffed angrily but softened when she noticed a faint red tint began to spread across Ron's face. She put her arm around him, "Sorry, Ron."

The Gryffindors did as they were told and kept away from Philomena and the Hospital Wing but their collective patience was wearing thin. After another week of waiting with no word on Philomena's awakening, Hermione had had enough. She had been hanging out with Harry, Ginny, Ron and Lavender for two weeks now and was tired of feeling like the third wheel or in this case fifth wheel. She missed her girlfriend terribly and could not wait any longer to see her. She asked Harry if she could borrow his Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map. Harry was a bit reluctant to hand them over thinking it was rather uncharacteristic of Hermione to be sneaking around by herself. However, after she told him it was to do some research in the restricted section of the library on what happened to Philomena, he gave them to her. Hermione felt bad about lying to him but in the end believed that if it were one of them in her situation, they would do the same, not wanting to hear criticism for such actions.

She waited for two hours as people slowly began to leave the Common Room and head up to bed. When the Common Room was empty, she checked the map quickly making sure no one was near before climbing under the cloak. Gently, Hermione pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady, easing her back against the wall once she had exited so as not to rouse the portrait awake. Hermione crept swiftly and quietly through the deserted halls. As she neared the Hospital Wing, she checked the map again, nearly gasping aloud as she read the name of the person next to Philomena's on the parchment. She froze not knowing whether to burst in and blast the person away or to creep in and see what was going on. Her rational mind told her to listen in first, that nothing bad would happen to Philomena, especially not when her magic was protectively cocooning her. Her irrational heart screamed what if she's awake and the magic is gone? She paced the hall a few times to calm herself then cracked the door open ever so slowly, opening it just enough to hear what was being said. The door's hinges squealed in protest causing the speaker to pause for a moment. When nothing seemed out of place, the speaker continued, "I'm so scared. I shouldn't have acted the way I did but I didn't know what else to do. I wish I could take it all back because it's been harder than I imagined without you. I only have a few confidants and they aren't in any better positions than I am. I need your help, Mena, I need you." Hermione heard the person shuffling inside so she shut the door, and hid behind a large vase. The door opened and shut slowly, but it appeared that no one had exited. _Using a Disillusionment Charm, how very clever,_ Hermione thought disdainfully. Of course, she didn't need to see the person exit, the Map had told her who it was, and the voice had confirmed it. She had thought she noticed some attraction between Philomena and Malfoy at the beginning of the year. Now, some months later, and much to her dismay, here he was in the middle of the night making bedside confessions to her girlfriend.

She raced back to Gryffindor Tower and climbed into Philomena's bed, angry tears falling hot down her cheeks. Draco Malfoy wanted her girlfriend! He had made her life a living hell for their entire school career here at Hogwarts and now on top of all that he had to go and fall in love with **her **girlfriend. _Wait a minute Hermione; you're getting ahead of yourself. He said that he needed her, needed her help, not that he loved her. Maybe he was struggling with their Potions assignment. _

"Yeah, right," Hermione muttered to herself shaking her head at the poor excuse for a rationalization. Jealousy was not becoming of her and she knew it so she tried to calm herself by focusing on the pillow instead of her anger. It smelled like Philomena's shampoo, lavender and rose petals. Breathing the scent in calmed her greatly and eventually lulled her to sleep. She awoke the next morning well rested and in a decent mood all things considered. She went about her usual morning routine and when she was finished she went downstairs, Arithmancy book in hand, to wait for the boys so they could get breakfast. About an hour later, they finally stumbled down the staircase looking as if they just rolled out of bed.

"Please tell me you've at least brushed your teeth," Hermione said, as she looked them over.

"We've showered and everything, do we really look that awful?" asked Harry.

"Like a pair of vagrants," she laughed hysterically as the two boys put on fake looks of hurt.

"Come on, you know I'm just having a go at you, besides I'd still love you even if you were vagrants," she hugged them both, "Now let's get some breakfast before it's all gone.

She didn't need to say it twice both boys raced past her and out the portrait hurrying to make it to the Great Hall before breakfast ended. As they sat eating Harry asked, "So how was your adventure last night?"

"What adventure?" asked Ron with a mouth full of waffles. Hermione opened her mouth to chastise him for the disgusting display of half masticated food when Harry started talking.

"She went to the library last night to see if she could find anything on Mena."

"Oh and how'd that go for you?"

They both looked at her expectantly but were distracted as the Great Hall doors opened again to see a very disheveled Draco Malfoy enter. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was falling into his face. He sat down at the end of the Slytherin table next to Blaise Zabini. Before his butt hit the bench good, Pansy had latched on to him whispering something into his ear. The more she said the more disgusted his face looked until he finally turned to her, said something that made her angry, and pushed her away from him. He grabbed a piece of toast and stormed out of the room. One could hear crickets from the Forbidden Forest in the silence that followed the little display.

"What do you suppose that was all about?" wondered Harry. Hermione had a damn good idea but kept tight-lipped. The jealousy and anger began to well up again as she thought about the events of last night. She wished she could talk to her best friends about it but she was sure they would a. yell at her for lying and b. laugh because they wouldn't believe what Malfoy had said. She pretended as if what just happened was of no importance, "No idea and last night was a bust. I didn't find anything useful." She went back to eating her breakfast and remained quiet for the rest of the meal opting to read her Arithmancy book instead.

The next few days went on in a similar fashion. The guys spent most of their time with their girlfriends, Hermione spent her time with her nose in a book, and Pansy continued to bother Draco. That was until the Headmaster entered their Potions class that Wednesday.

"Do excuse me Professor Snape, but I need to speak with Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Potter," Professor Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"As you wish," replied Snape tersely, giving a slight nod of approval. The three students did not hide their pleasure from the rest of the class as they gathered their belongings. But, they did give their fellow Gryffindors looks of sympathy and apology on their way out the door.

"What's wrong Professor?" asked Hermione her voice full of concern.

"Nothing as of right now, all is extremely well. In fact, it seems that our dear Mena has decided to grace us with her presence again."

"She's awake!" shouted Hermione joyfully, before slapping the boys on the arm for rolling their eyes.

"Yes and she's asked for you."

Hermione could hardly contain herself. _Thank Merlin she's finally awake. I don't know how much more of this I could take. What makes things even better is that she asked for me, she missed me too. My cup runneth over._ They could not get to the Hospital Wing quick enough for her and when they finally did arrive she had to mentally remind herself not to crush Philomena to death with hugs and kisses…or at least wait until they were alone. Instead, she settled for a quick embrace and kiss on the cheek. Hermione grabbed Philomena's hand, "I've missed you so much."

"Yeah, she's been a right pain, moping about all day," added Ron with a grin, ducking as Hermione swung at him.

"Yes, I'm sure," Philomena replied sarcastically. She wrapped her other hand around Hermione's, "I've missed you too."

"I must speak to Madam Pomfrey; take this time to catch Mena up. When I return, we will need to discuss certain matters," Professor Dumbledore exited the main room through a door that led into Madam Pomfrey's office.

"So just how long have I been out?"

"Two and a half weeks, we leave for Grimmauld Place this Friday," answered Harry.

"And today is?"

"Wednesday, the 17th of December," said Ron with a grin.

"Ay dios mío," Philomena groaned. She looked up to find three very confused faces. Laughing she explained, "It's Spanish for 'Oh my God.' So, what else did I miss while I was catching up on my beauty rest?"

"You missed the Ravenclaw match. Had to replace you with one of the people who tried out, who by the way was awful. But we won so I guess I forgive you," said Harry with his arms crossed pretending to be upset which only made Philomena laugh.

"The professors are really pushing us this term, I'm afraid to say you've missed quite a bit of homework," said Hermione before adding, "I'm sure they will give you extensions and we can work on it over break."

"Just what she wants to do over her break, work," Ron rolled his eyes and shook his head at Hermione, "She's been awake for two minutes and you're already worrying her about homework."

Ron paused for a moment then added, "Then again, with the way your Potions partner has been acting lately, I would be worried too."

Concern flashed across Philomena's face. _Draco acting stranger than usual something must be wrong with him. Wait not Draco; he's Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy. And I don't care what's happened to him, right? Right. _Philomena had gotten lost in her mental pep talk but snapped back to reality as she noticed the confused looks on her friends' faces. She recovered quickly though, "Oh? What's wrong with him, now?"

"He's gone all funny. He's like a pod person now. His hair is always messy and so are his clothes―" Harry started but Ron interrupted.

"He keeps getting into the most ridiculous fights with Pansy Parkinson. She actually attacked him earlier in the Great Hall, practically molested him in front of the whole school. He grabbed her by the face and pushed her away so hard she fell off the bench. I almost felt sorry for him," Ron explained with a look of utter disbelief on his face. Philomena looked to Hermione who had grown extremely quiet.

"Are they kidding?" Philomena asked.

"No, he has been acting rather off, I just hope for your sake he hasn't been slacking on your potion," Hermione responded just as Professor Dumbledore reentered.

**A/N: **I know, this a horrible place for a cliffhanger. Nothing terribly interesting happened here, but I cut it for a reason. This chapter would have been like fifteen pages with the way I have it mapped out. We haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. I need more time to really get the next part together so rather than not posting anything at all I figured I'd give you a little teaser chapter. I work for like 7 hrs straight this Saturday and I am going to try to get part two posted this weekend. So technically, you readers are getting two chapters like back to back…Lucky You!

As a Side/End Note:

To Yemi Hikari, the lovely reviewer who wrote the ten-page review listing what was wrong with my story….you assume too much. To try to help you and others who are thinking similarly understand where I'm coming from with this story, I'll write a little bit about each of the things you mentioned in your review.

**First**: The traits that Philomena possesses that would be seen as worthy to the Slytherins are not noticeable at first glance. They would probably have only sensed how powerful she was. The shyness and vulnerability that she showed when asking if she could sit with them would have been a turn off, hence their rude response.

**Second**: Philomena, strange name, but I love it! It's one of my writing flaws; I always give my characters strange names because I wish I had a unique name. Besides, what kind of name is Lavender Brown…?

**Third**: It's a completely Latin name, how is that at all Japanese? Yes, the schools in America are different as is Magus. It's really more like a college than a high school. Think Cruel Intentions, prestigious, private boarding school.

**Fourth**: Years of braces give you perfectly straight teeth…or at least that's the reason why parents tend to spend so much on them…

**Fifth**: Yes recognizing the school was polite, but she normally would have introduced herself first, that's what she was referring too. This is mostly a lapse because Philomena made her nervous because Hermione finds her attractive.

**Sixth**: Background info that will later be discussed in the coming chapters, there's a reason why she came back and it isn't Voldemort. That excuse is a cover.

**Seventh**: More background info, Philomena's been through a lot, is afraid of many things, and has many faults…they just haven't been revealed yet.

**Eighth**: Her mom is currently a stay at home mom but she went to school to be a pediatrician. She worked up until the twin's births and won't return to work until they go off to Hogwarts. I probably didn't make that very clear, my bad. Her family life is far from perfect, they do a lot to give that impression, again more background info.

**Ninth**: It wasn't meant to outshine Hermione; it was to show how similar they are. Neither of them let Malfoy push them around. Maybe it was poor wording but outshining Hermione was not the intent.

**Tenth**: Background info again, Philomena has a darker past than I've let on. Hold your horses darling…When all is revealed, it will make sense why she is the way she is. There's not much holding our dear Philomena together and with the added pressure of this new power, which will also be explained more in the next chapter/part, she will begin to crack and crumble apart. Sorry if she makes most of you gag, but try to keep dinner down for a little bit longer, she will become less like the character she was introduced as in the coming chapters.


	7. Of Discoveries pt2

**A/N: **There are some naughty bits in this chapter…you have been warned.

**Chapter 6: Of Discoveries pt.2**

"So, Professor, you said there was something you needed to talk to me about?" Philomena asked nervously. She was certain that whatever they needed to discuss was bad news. She braced herself for impact.

"Yes there is. I'm sure you, all of you in fact, are wondering what happened in Hogsmeade," he paused as all four students nodded their heads, "Well there is a perfectly good explanation for it. You possess a powerful, ancient form of magic called the Niveus Lux Lucis, the translation simply meaning White Light."

"That would explain the glowing," said Philomena with a little laugh.

Dumbledore nodded and then continued, "The White Light has been passed down through your family line for centuries. The first appearance was recorded around the 9th century however many magical historians believe it had occurred many times prior to that occasion. Of course that was before reliable recording practices were established."

"So does everyone in my family have it or just me?"

"It appears that it lays dormant in the blood line until it is needed. It usually makes its appearance when Dark Magic threatens to destroy our world. The sole purpose of the power is to sense and destroy the source."

"Well why didn't one of my parents use it against Voldemort during the first war? Then," she stopped glancing briefly at Harry before finishing weakly, "nothing bad would be happening now."

Dumbledore sighed, he really was getting tired of having to ruin young people's lives, "There would have been no one to carry on the line. You see, the White Light is more than just a power that inhabits the blood of your family; it is a spirit. In essence, you are being possessed by the spirit of the Pagan goddess Nivea—the goddess of white magic and light. Do you know why it lays dormant in the blood?"

Philomena's mind raced thinking of all the possible reasons. She thought back to her experience in limbo, of the voice and the force that held her. When she heard the voice, she had tried to follow and when the force grabbed her and restrained her, she was scared. However, the more she thought about it, the more she realized the force hadn't grabbed her as suddenly as it seemed. It sort of slowly wrapped around her, like a hug. The force, which she now knew was a Pagan goddess' spirit, had hugged her to keep her away from the voice. _Wait a second…family line, blood, hugs; _Philomena's face took on a look of surprise before she blurted out loud, "We're related! She's my ancestor?"

A confused expression took the place of the surprised one, "How is that even possible?"

"Yes, she is your ancestor. As for how it came to be that way, there have been many accounts passed down from word of mouth eventually reaching the ears of someone wise enough to write them down. The generally accepted version is known as "The Fall of Nivea." She was known to don disguises and walk amongst the mortals of her time. It was on one of these trips that she happened across a young Greek man, named Manolis. They fell in love and from their union a child was born. Their union was kept secret fearing the punishment for Nivea's actions, as the gods and goddess were not to have direct contact with mortals. Unfortunately, Keres, the goddess of darkness and rage, found out about the lovers. She had been in love with Nivea from the beginning and was blinded by jealousy when she saw the two lovers together. She told the other gods and goddess of Nivea's betrayal out of spite. Their punishment was the death of Manolis. Nivea's heart became hard and vengeful. She swore an eternal oath to bring down those whose hearts were filled with darkness and evil. Then she took her own life and her spirit inhabited the body of her child. I believe your mother is a descendent of that child."

"How could she not be? She's of Greek heritage and her maiden name is Manos, which was derived from the name Manolis," she paused as her friends gave her a look that clearing said how-do-you-know-that.

"My mother is very big on her Greek heritage and has done some research on her family. Does my mother know about all of this though?"

"Yes she does. A journal that has been handed down from generation to generation has a full account of it. The spirit communicated everything to the author of said journal and they wrote it down. The journal is currently in your mother's possession."

"If she knew about this all along, why didn't she tell me sooner?"

"That is a question that only your mother will be able to answer. Your family has been invited to stay at Grimmauld Place for Christmas; I suggest you ask her then."

"I'm not so sure I care what her reason was. She should have told me. This isn't something that you keep a secret," Philomena yelled. How could her mother keep something this important from her? They were like best friends; they told each other everything. Philomena had even told her mother about her sexual confusion. It hurt knowing that she was more honest with her mother than her mother had been with her. Hermione squeezed her hand, "Mena, I'm sure she has a good reason."

"Yeah, she probably just wanted to protect you," added Ron.

Harry looked at his friend, knowing exactly how she felt. Having things happen to you and not know why, having people kill your family and ruin your life and having no control over any of it, sucked—plain and simple. He looked away, choosing to stare out the window instead while he spoke, "Maybe she wanted to save you the pain of being the person with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Maybe she just wanted you to be a normal teenager, with normal problems, not the girl inhabited by the vengeful spirit of her goddess ancestor."

"Oh Harry," Philomena whispered as she reached out to touch his hand.

"I'm fine," he said quickly then turned to the headmaster and asked, "So what exactly does all this mean?"

"Mena, you will need to have extra lessons to learn how to control your power. The White Light is extremely powerful and must be used with caution. You were very lucky that Madam Pomfrey was able to save you, but you may not be so lucky next time. Nivea cares for you and she is blinded by her need to protect you from evil the way she couldn't protect Manolis. In her eagerness to protect you, her powers may actually kill you, which is why she lay dormant in your mother."

"She's an only child and had no children at the time, so if my mother died, she would have died with her."

"Yes."

"But, I could still die because now I have brothers who could host her."

"Yes."

Philomena laid back in the bed with her eyes closed, trying to hold in the tears that threatened to escape. This was too much for her; she couldn't handle all this and she didn't want it. She heard movement and opened her eyes to see Dumbledore standing, "I'll leave you four to your thoughts. I believe you shall be discharged tomorrow afternoon. You will be excused from your classes on Friday so that you may speak to your professors and retrieve your make-up assignments."

"Professor, what do I do if Nivea tries to take over and I don't want her too?"

"I can't imagine a situation in which that would occur over the next month, but if you feel her awakening, try to speak to her, calm her down. Put her at ease by telling her you can handle the situation yourself, that is all I can tell you though, the rest you'll have to find out from the journal," with that he turned and left them.

"Did that really just happen?" Philomena spoke, her voice full of disbelief.

"Yes, it did. You handled that rather well," Harry said with a laugh.

"How so?"

"Well when I found out about the prophesy, I smashed a lot of shiny things in Dumbledore's office. When I first heard it, I took it as a death sentence, that not only had my parents died over words but I probably would too and I got very angry. Now, I see it as a leg up, because I don't think Voldemort ever did find out what it actually said."

"Did Dumbledore get angry?"

"No, I'm sure after I left he just repaired it all anyway. Don't worry, the initial shock eventually goes away. It fades slowly into acceptance," Harry responded with a lopsided grin.

"Are you ok?" asked Hermione not knowing anything else to say.

"Well, I'm possessed, I killed a bunch of people and will do it again, and I'm probably going to die within the next year, yeah I'm ok," her voice cracked as she finished and the tears she'd been holding in flooded down her face. Hermione climbed into the bed with her and held her close, smoothing her hair, trying to soothe her, "Please don't cry, Mena. Everything will work out, you'll see. You'll be ok."

At that moment, Ron's stomach made the loudest noise ever. Philomena looked up and gave a little snort of laughter.

"You guys have been here for awhile it's probably close to dinner time. I'll be fine you should go eat something. Especially you, Ron, before that monster under your shirt decides to eat you instead."

"Ha. Ha. You're not funny and we aren't leaving you until Pomfrey kicks us out. So you are just going to be stuck with us," Ron stuck his tongue out when he finished.

Philomena just rolled her eyes and cuddled closer to Hermione, listening to the other three as they spoke about all the things they would do over break. She had missed her family so much and as much as she dreaded the talk they would be having, she wanted to see them desperately. She couldn't wait to introduce Hermione to them either. It would be awkward for all involved but she knew her family loved her no matter what. Ron mentioned something about his older brothers Fred and George possibly staying there as well and Philomena made a mental note to keep them away from her twins as they were bad enough already. Her tears and slowed down considerably by this point and she had relaxed into the comfort of Hermione's arms. She listened to the rhythmic beating of her heart, felt the slow rise and fall of her chest as she breathed and before she knew it, Hermione was gently shaking her awake.

"Hey sleepyhead, we have to go but I will be by tomorrow when you get released. Okay?"

"Mmm, kay," was all that Philomena could muster for a response. It made Hermione smile and she bent down and kissed her goodnight before leaving with the boys to go get dinner.

It was way after curfew and rather far from his domain but Draco Malfoy was not worried. He walked with a purpose. She had sent him a note telling him that she needed to speak to him, that it was very important. She told him to come to the seventh floor and walk past the section across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy three times. When he got to the tapestry, he opened the note, "What was it I was supposed to think about?" He scanned the note quickly finding the sentence he was looking for; he focused on that thought as he walked passed three times. As he made his final pass, a door appeared in wall. "Cool," he whispered as he grabbed the handle and opened the door. The sight before his eyes was rather surprising. In the room, there was a large canopy bed, a raging fire in the fireplace, and a large sofa. There were candles all over the room and rose petals scattered over the floors and the bed. Draco looked at the note again, and then at the room, "This can't be right." He turned and headed straight for the door when a soft voice called out to him.

"Leaving so soon, Draco? We haven't even talked yet."

The voice left chills running rampant down his spine. He turned to face the voice and found himself staring at the most beautiful sight ever. Philomena was standing in the doorway that led to what he could only assume was a bathroom. She was wearing candy apple red lacy lingerie and a snow white, silk robe. Draco was dumbstruck; his brain had officially stopped working the moment he laid eyes on her. He couldn't even think well enough to formulate the words 'no I'm not going anywhere'. Philomena laughed quietly as she stared at the boy across the room from her.

"Are you going to stand all the way over there and stare at me all night or are you going to come over here and sit on the couch with me?" she asked seductively as she walked over to the couch and sat down. He willed his feet to move but they didn't budge. _What is the matter with me? It's not as if you've never seen a girl in her knickers before. SNAP OUT OF IT! _Draco mentally yelled at himself. Philomena beckoned him over. He took a deep breath, walked over to the couch, and sat down next to her with his hands in his lap.

"Now that's not so bad is it Draco?" she placed her hand on his knee and slowly moved it up his thigh to his hands, taking one of them into her own.

"So, you wanted to talk to me about something, Mena?" Draco asked looking into the fire. Philomena grabbed his chin with her free hand and turned his face towards her own, "Yes, but I'm over here. What do you think of the room?"

"It's very lovely, bit more decked out than I expected though."

"Well that's because I wanted this to be special."

"Our talk?"

"Oh Draco, haven't you caught on yet?" Philomena paused has he shook his head no.

"I like you, a lot," she pulled his face towards her and kissed him.

The second their lips met, Draco melted. His world exploded and all that was left was her. Sure, he had kissed other girls before but it had never felt this good, this right. He removed his hand from hers and placed it on her neck, stroking her cheek with his thumb. Philomena moaned into his mouth as she felt his tongue against her lips. She parted them, allowing him access. Their tongues glided across each other slowly, sensually, hands had begun to roam seeking out new territories to explore. Philomena began to disrobe Draco, their lips only leaving each other to pull shirt over his head. She ran her hands over his lean, muscular torso sending a fresh set of chills down his spine. They stayed like this for a few more minutes when suddenly Philomena pulled away.

"Mmmm, what's the matter?" Draco asked.

"Nothing," she planted a light kiss on his lips, teasing him with her tongue, "You want to take this over there?"

He followed her eye line directly to the bed, "Only if you do."

Philomena stood and walked over the bed. She took the robe off and let it slide down her arms and pool at her feet. Draco stood and followed her, kicking his shoes off along the way. He wrapped his arms around her and began to kiss her again, slowly leaning her back down onto the bed. Their bodies were laying flat against each other as they kissed passionately. Philomena hooked her leg around Draco's and flipped them in one swift movement without breaking the kiss. She began to move her hips slowly over Draco's groin. The unexpected movement caused him to gasp in pleasure. Philomena took note of the hardness growing underneath her and went to undo his belt. Draco's eyes shot open and his hands immediately stopped hers.

"What are you doing?" he asked breathlessly.

"I just figured you'd be more comfortable with these off," she grinned as she grazed his hard-on with her hand. His hips bucked involuntarily.

"I'm fine with what we are doing now. We don't have to do anything else," he hoped that would be enough and they could get back to the kissing. He had only done more than that once in his life and he had regretted it ever since. It was a drunken mistake over the summer with Pansy and it had left him feeling dirty and stuck with a stage 5 clinger.

"But I want to," she looked at his flushed face and saw anxiety and nervousness there, "Draco, have you never done this before?"

"I have but only once before, and it was a mistake. I hardly even remember it to be honest," Draco replied. He had only told a very select few people that. He was no Slytherin sex god though many of his fellow classmates, males and females alike had dubbed him as such.

"Well then, let me make it up to you. I'll take good care of you, I promise," she said. He opened his mouth to protest but she immediately covered it with her own and began to kiss him with more fervor than before. She undid his belt buckle and pulled it off in one swift motion, pausing only for a second to tease the skin just below the waist of his pants with her fingertips. She undid the button and carefully lowered the zipper. She kissed him all the way down his torso as she pulled his pants down with her letting them join her discarded robe on the floor. She slowly crawled back up his body planting feather-like kisses all over his stomach and chest. Soon she was straddling him, working her hips in agonizingly slow circles as she kissed his neck and teased his earlobes with her tongue and teeth. She sat up and unhooked her bra, revealing herself to Draco. She leaned in to kiss him again, her breasts grazing his chest as she did. Draco was positively panting, as far as he was concerned this could go on forever. He was far too nervous to do anything more than run his hands up and down her back while holding her close to him. The feel of her skin on his had every part of his body awake and tingling from the sensations. Then he felt her hands slowly tugging his boxers down and he tensed up. She kissed his stomach again before she took him into her mouth. Draco's hips bucked slightly. She licked the shaft slowly before making circles around the head. After several minutes of licking, sucking, and stroking Draco was at that point. Just as he was about to release, the sensations stopped. He opened his eyes to see Philomena removing her panties. He licked his lips in anticipation. She straddled his body, hovering just inches above him. They stayed that way for a moment, just staring into each other eyes, then, she lowered herself onto him. As he felt himself enter her he cried out, "Oh Mena!"

THUD

Draco Malfoy was awakened by the hard reality of the stone floor meeting his face as he tumbled out of his bed. Groaning loudly he began to untangle himself from the sheets which during the course of the night had managed to wrap themselves completely around his legs and torso. _I have to stop waking up like this, _he thought as he finally freed himself from the sheets. He looked down to find his silk pajama pants tented. Sighing he grabbed his toiletries and headed to the bathroom to relieve some tension. As soon as the door to the bathroom clicked shut, Goyle pulled back the curtains on his bed. He had gotten used to Draco moaning in his sleep since he had been doing it every night for the past two weeks. However, this night was different; this was the first time that he had been able to understand what Draco had been moaning about or rather who he had been moaning about. He dressed quickly and raced out of the dormitory in search of Pansy.

Philomena was so excited about leaving the Hospital Wing she could hardly stay asleep. As of this moment, she had been up three times today. First, when the sun began to rise, the light had shone right in her eyes. After she finished watching that, she drifted back to sleep for a couple of hours until she heard Madam Pomfrey moving around. It was only nine though so she went back to bed until eleven when she decided it was late enough to start getting ready to leave. She had on jeans and a red shirt with a white zip jacket. She walked over to the mirror on the wall and quickly pulled her messy curls into a loose bun and applied her makeup. She looked at the clock. _Only a few more minutes until lunch and then I'll be free!_ Those were the longest few minutes of her life. She was sitting in a chair with her head on the bed dozing when Hermione entered. Hermione bent to kiss Philomena on the head when her eyes opened suddenly. Both girls screamed, jumped back, and then realizing what just occurred started laughing hysterically. Madam Pomfrey came rushing out of her office, "What is going on in here?"

"Nothing Madam, we just startled each other," explained Hermione slightly red in the face.

"Yes, well, you're free to go Mena. Good day ladies," she said as she went back into her office.

"Would you like to grab some lunch?" Hermione asked as they exited the Hospital Wing.

"Sure, I haven't had lunch yet."

They reached the doors to the Great Hall and Philomena went to open the door, but Hermione held her back.

"What?" asked Philomena.

"Well, I should warn you first. Word travels fast around here, if no one is supposed to know everyone knows."

"So everyone knows," Philomena swallowed hard, "Everything?"

"The only thing that people know about is what happened in Hogsmeade."

"Oh well, that's not so bad. I was worried that someone overheard us yesterday. I definitely don't want everyone to know about that."

"Well, you'd think that it wouldn't be so bad but since you've been in the hospital and no one's been allowed to see you," Hermione paused.

"Surely they know that, since they know everything else."

"Yes they do, but it's like that game telephone. Someone saw what happened, told someone else, and here we are two weeks later and you are some superhuman samurai warrior!" Hermione exclaimed.

Several things went through Philomena's mind as Hermione shouted that last statement, none of which was anger. Her face contorted strangely for a second and Hermione hugged her closely thinking that she was going to start crying. Philomena's body began shaking uncontrollably. Hermione pulled back worried that the news had possibly awakened Nivea only to find Philomena laughing so hard there was no noise. Hermione thumped her on the arm, "That's not funny! I thought you-know-what was happening!"

"HAHAH! Oh come on, Mione. A superhuman samurai warrior, really? That's not funny at all?"

Hermione thought about it for a second before she too disintegrated into laughter, "Well, I suppose it is more humorous when you know that's not the truth."

"So can we go in and get some food now, I'm starving."

"Gosh you sounded like Ron just then," Hermione teased as she ran into the Great Hall with Philomena chasing right after. The second the students noticed who had just entered, it got deathly silent. Students openly stared at Philomena, whispering to their neighbors. Hermione turned to look at Philomena who had a shocked look on her face for about two seconds before smiling and walking over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Ginny.

"Well, I've never. I'm supposed to be a samurai warrior and this is the reception I receive upon my return," Philomena huffed, folded her arms, and stuck her nose in the air. The Gryffindors all erupted into laughter at her comment. The other tables went back to their previous conversations but continued to steal furtive glances in her direction throughout the meal. Philomena however was enjoying the company of her friends too much to pay any attention to the gawking students.

Draco Malfoy was sitting at the Slytherin table pretending to eat his lunch. He wasn't actually paying attention to what Blaise was saying but he would nod his head every so often when he could tear himself away from pushing his food around his plate. He heard the doors to the hall open and shortly after that, the hall became silent. His head shot up looking towards the doors knowing who he would see there—Philomena. She looked amazing and healthy. _She's wearing red and white too, _he thought to himself with a slight smile on his face as his mind wandered back to the dream he's had last night. Feeling his pants becoming a little tighter, he decided to think of other things, like Snape, naked. _Yup, that did it. _He smiled as he looked over at Philomena; however, she wasn't looking at him when she smiled back. She was smiling at Hermione as she joined the rest of her friends at the table. Within seconds, the table was laughing and joking as if nothing had happened. The dopey grin fell from his face. She hadn't even looked in his general direction. He continued to stare at her, mentally willing her to look at him. She was still smiling and it made him smile despite his surroundings. Blaise roughly roused him from his musings with a elbow to the ribs.

"Ow! What the hell?" yelled Draco as he rubbed the area where he knew a bruise was already forming.

"Incoming," was all Blaise said.

Draco turned to see a very angry Pansy storming up to him. He fixed his best Malfoy sneer just as she sat down to his right.

"You'd better just watch yourself Malfoy," she growled at him.

"Well hello to you too Parkinson," he glared back at her.

"Don't get smart with me! I know all about you and your little slut of a Potions partner."

"I haven't the slightest clue what you are talking about," he said through gritted teeth. _How dare she call Mena a slut! Ugly, pug-faced…_

"Are you listening to me, MALFOY?"

"No, and I will continue to not listen to you as long as you speak nonsense to me," and with that he and Blaise stood and walked out.

"You should be careful with her. You know she's crazy," warned Blaise.

"I know that, Blaise. Was I that obvious?"

"Just now, yes you were quite obvious, but in the past not at all. Pansy's not bright enough to have just come up with that from today."

"Oh no," Draco dropped his face into his hands and groaned.

"What did you do?"

"Well, it's a bit embarrassing," Draco started.

"I'll try not to laugh then," Blaise said with grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Sure you will. I have been having very vivid dreams about Mena and I do believe at some point I might have said her name aloud. It's possible that someone overheard," Draco said as quickly as possible growing ever pinker as the grin on Blaise's face continued to expand.

"How long have you been having these, vivid dreams?" Blaise coughed to cover a slight snort of laughter.

"Almost two weeks now," Draco's eyes moved upwards to stare at some random point above Blaise's head.

"Are you or are you not an accomplished student in the art of magic?"

"I am," Draco replied slightly confused at this new line of questioning.

"Well for Merlin's sake if you are going to be moaning people names in your sleep, use a decent Silencing Charm next time!" Blaise scolded him with an angry whisper as they had just reached the entrance to the Slytherin dorm.

"As much as I'd like to hex you for being a prat right now, that's actually a decent bit of advice."

"Well of course it is, I know everything," Blaise said half-joking. He turned away from Draco to head towards his bedroom when suddenly he found himself flat on his back. He looked up to find Draco laughing at him.

"Trip Jinx, I just couldn't help myself."

Four Hours Later

Philomena sat in the girls' dormitory holding a note that just been dropped off by owl. The owl was Draco's, and so was the script on the parchment addressing it to her. _My name looks so pretty when he writes it, _she thought to herself before opening it.

Mena,

I need to speak to you about our project. Can you meet me in the Astronomy Tower? I am going to be there working on another assignment around 8 o'clock.

Draco

Philomena read it through another time then folded it and placed it in her robe pocket. Reading the note left her with a slightly uneasy feeling though. It was short and to the point just like Draco's notes were, but she couldn't think of what class he would be in that would require him to be in the astronomy tower. That wasn't the only thing that bothered her either; Draco had used their first names. The last time they spoke, he had used her surname. What could have changed his mind about being friends? It made sense to discuss the project before break considering she had done no work in the past three weeks and they hadn't met in over a month. It just seemed odd, but she figured she ought to go anyway because if it was about their project and she didn't show up, she was no better than him skipping out on research. That made up her mind. _Besides, if I go, I can ask him why he's been acting all weird, _she thought and went to tell Hermione.

It was a quarter til 8pm and Philomena was making her way to the Astronomy Tower. When she arrived, it was completely empty. She figured he was running late and settled for gazing at the stars. It was a perfectly clear night and a beautiful crescent shaped moon had risen. She heard the door to the tower open and shut. However, when she turned around it was not Draco that she saw. Pansy Parkinson stood glaring angrily at her with three fellow Slytherin girls standing behind, each looking equally as angry. One she recognized as Millicent Bullstrode, but she did not know the names of the other two.

"Parkinson, what are you doing here?"

"I came to set you straight."

"Excuse me?"

"I know about you and Draco! Don't try to play stupid. Keep your mudblood loving hands off of my boyfriend."

"First, he's not your boyfriend. Second, there is no me and Draco, we are just working together in Potions. Not that I need to explain myself to you anyway, if we were together it'd be none of your business."

"If you aren't together then why are his roommates complaining of him moaning your name every night?"

"I have no idea! I've been in the hospital for damn near three weeks, idiot! If you are so worried about it, why don't you ask him? He'll be here in soon."

"Actually, he won't. I sent that note to you."

Philomena mentally kicked herself. No wonder that note didn't sound like him.

"Well if that's the case, I'll just be leaving," and she made to leave but they blocked the door and Pansy pushed her back.

"You're not going anywhere. We aren't finished with you yet. I don't think I've made myself clear enough and I want to make sure this sticks."

The three girls began to walk closer to her shooting jinxes. A protective bubble surrounded her. She hadn't done that. Suddenly she started to feel funny and began to breathe faster. _Uh oh, not now, _she thought to herself. She remembered what Dumbledore had said to her yesterday, breathe calmly and try to talk to Nivea. _Nivea, please calm down. You can't handle this for me. I need to take care of this myself. _She could not feel the change letting up so she tried a different angle. _If you take of my body and kill these girls, who are too stupid to do any real harm to me, I will go to jail. I will be there until I die and good luck defeating Voldemort behind bars. You don't want that to happen, do you? _She felt rather than heard a response, _No, but you will not receive my help in this situation if you should need it. You will learn young one. _The protection spell disappeared and Philomena was now in control of her body once more.

Pansy and company were still throwing jinxes and hexes her way but the looks of shock were still clearly plastered across their faces. They had not seen Philomena draw her wand or say anything before that protective bubble appeared. They backed up a bit but regained their confidence when the protection spell disappeared. Philomena tried to battle them all at once but she was out of practice. She had taken a few hits and was bleeding from her left arm.

"STUPIFY!" she yelled as she pointed her wand at one of the girls. It hit her square in the chest and she tumbled out the open door. Another girl went to check on her fallen companion and then there were two.

"Expelliarmus," said Millicent Bullstrode in a gruff shout. Philomena was already in a crouch so she rolled to the right to dodge the spell. She shouted a stinging jinx in Millicent's direction just as Pansy aimed a stunning spell at her.

"HA!" shouted Pansy triumphantly. She walked over to Philomena's unconscious body and punched kicked her in the face, bruising her cheek and busting her lip. Pansy removed Philomena's cloaks and placed then right in front of her face. Before she and Millicent left to find the other two girls, Pansy pointed her wand at Philomena and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!"

"Good luck getting out of that one," grunted Millicent and with that, they left.

Draco was in the dormitory alone, sitting on his bed, reading a book when Pansy walked in looking extremely pleased with herself. Her face was slightly pink and her hand was cold when she touched him. His face curled up in disgust as he removed her hand.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" he asked not caring what the answer was.

"Because I've fixed everything, no one is going to come between us Dray," she leaned in to kiss him and he backed away from her.

"What do you mean by that? What did you do?"

"I've taught that filthy, mudblood lover a lesson. One she won't soon forget."

Draco couldn't control himself and in one swift motion, he had Pansy up against the wall with his hand around her neck.

"Where is she?"

Pansy struggled to free herself but did not answer. He released his grip on her neck and settled for shaking her violently.

"Where is she!" he yelled.

Pansy stomped on his foot and when he was distracted pushed him away from her, "I know how to keep my mouth shut!"

She ran from the room before he could grab her again. If only she were a man, he would have beaten the shit out of her. He began to pace his room trying to think of the possible places Philomena could be. _It would have to be somewhere away from the general population; somewhere a fight could go unnoticed. Somewhere Philomena wouldn't be stumbled across anytime soon. _He paused mid-stride, Pansy's hands had been cold and her face was pink. She had been outside! Dear Merlin, it was below freezing, if Philomena was outside, she could freeze to death if no one found her. He ran to find Blaise.

"Blaise, a word," he said and turned on his heel and walked back to his room.

Blaise entered behind him looking worried. He shut the door, locked it and placed a silencing charm around the room.

"Draco, what's wrong?"

"Mena, Pansy's done something to her. She wouldn't say what, but I think she's left her outside somewhere."

"Draco it's winter, if she left her outside," Blaise began.

"I know, we have to find her."

They began to throw on their winter cloaks and headed out the room to the Entrance Hall.

"You search outside and I'll check the Owlery and the Astronomy Tower, send your Patronus if you find her," Draco said before running up to the Owlery.

Draco ran as fast as he could without drawing too much attention to himself. He glanced at a window and noticed that it had started to snow. He sped up. It had been about fifteen minutes since Pansy came into his room. Who knew how long it had taken her to get back? His face burned as the blood rushed to his face in anger. _I think I'll put Millicent under Imperious and have her beat the crap out of Pansy, _he smiled evilly as he considered this plan. He had finally reached the Owlery and a light layer of snow covered the stairs. He checked all over but saw no signs of Philomena so he dashed out almost breaking his neck when he slipped on an icy step. The Astronomy Tower was all the way on the other side of the castle near Gryffindor Tower, even running at full speed it would still take him at least ten minutes to get there and that was if the stairwells were being helpful. _I probably would have done better flying outside the castle, _he thought ruefully. When he finally reached the Tower, it had been at least a full half an hour. He climbed the steps praying that she would be there and sure enough, there she was covered in snow on the ground. Her cloaks lay right in front of her face, which was slightly bluish. He went to pick her up but her body remained rigid.

"Finite Incantatum," he said and Philomena's body went limp in his arms.

"T-t-took y-you l-l-long e-nou-nou-gh," she stuttered into chest as he held her close. He pointed his wand at the cloaks and placed a drying and heating spell on them before wrapping them around Philomena shaking body.

"Expecto Patronum!" he shouted and a small white puppy jumped from the end of his wand, "Find Blaise outside on the grounds and bring him here."

The puppy wagged its tail and flew off the top of the tower.

"I th-th-thought only Ha-Harry c-c-could d-do th-that."

"Well shows what you know then. Come on lets get you inside where it's warm."

He lifted her up into his arms and carefully descended the steps until he was at the bottom of the stairs. He continued to hold her close. She shifted in his arms and looked up at him. She had a black eye, a busted lip, and her nose, cheeks, and tips of her ears were very pink. He smiled at her, "You look like a battered Christmas elf."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Now if you had said I looked like a Smurf we would have had some issues, mostly medical."

"Smurf?"

"It's a muggle children's TV show all about little blue woodland creatures, similar to elves."

"What were you doing up here?"

"I got a note from you saying to meet you here to talk about our project."

"I didn't write you a note and in the future I don't have any classes that would require me to be up here."

"Obviously, you don't. Pansy wrote the letter. I knew something was up because she addressed it to me as Mena and signed it Draco."

"Well what's so wrong about that?"

"The last time we saw each other you called me McKellen and you signed your note Malfoy."

"About that," Draco began but stopped when the door burst open and Blaise came in with matching facial redness as Philomena.

"Is she alright?"

"I'm fine," she made to stand up but found that she couldn't feel her feet; "My feet are numb."

"Well you have been outside for over a half and hour without a cloak."

"Pansy left you out there without a cloak!" Blaise yelled in disbelief. Sure, he knew Pansy was crazy but what she had done to Philomena was just plain psychotic.

"Yes, the little slug put them right in front of my face but as I was unable to move, I could only look at them."

Blaise thought about this for a moment be saying, "Well since we can't hit her, do you think we could coax Millicent into it?"

"I was thinking the same thing earlier,"

"I doubt that would work. Millicent is the one that gave me this," she pointed to her left arm were there was frozen blood crusted to her shirt and arm.

"Okay then forget Millicent, I'll hit her my damn self, after we take you to the Hospital Wing," said Blaise as he helped Draco get Philomena up.

"No, no Hospital Wing. I'm fine, trust me."

"Mena, you're bleeding and you almost froze to death," Draco tried to plead with her.

"I'm fine; just help me back to the Gryffindor Common Room."

"But," Draco began but Philomena cut him off.

"Please Draco, I just need to get in front of a fire. Hermione can patch me up. Please."

Her entire face was pleading with him and her eyes seemed to bore right through him. How was he supposed to turn that down?

"Fine, but if I hear that your leg has been cut off due to undiagnosed frostbite, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Draco, you sure about that?" Blaise asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure that Potter and Weasley will probably crucify me and Granger will probably kick me in an inappropriate place for touching her girlfriend."

"Well as long as you know what's in store for you," he laughed and then added, "I'm going to have to take a rain check on seeing that. Besides, I have some hexes to bestow." He bid Philomena farewell and wished Draco good luck then headed back to the dorms. Philomena's feet were warming up but now she couldn't walk because of the pins and needles feeling that was sending painful tremors up her legs. Draco carried her dutifully all the way to Gryffindor Tower. They arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady about five minutes later, Philomena gave her the password and she swung open muttering something about the young couples acted today.

"Your decorator should be sent to Azkaban," Draco quipped when he saw all the red and gold. At the sound of his voice, three heads popped up from the couch. Harry and Ron looked as though they might commit murder and Hermione looked jealous and hurt.

"What the fuck did you do to her?" shouted Harry as he rushed at him.

Draco backed up against a wall but before he could say anything, Philomena had come to his defenses.

"He didn't do this. Pansy and her crew did."

"What?" all three Gryffindors asked.

"We'll explain in a minute. Draco, can you put me down over there in that chair?"

He nodded and walked over towards the fireplace and gently set her down in an overstuffed chair. He fixed her cloaks then went to sit on the floor by her chair. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were glued to their spots. What the hell was Malfoy playing at being so nice to Philomena? Hermione moved to sit first and slowly the other two made their way back to the couch to listen to their story. When they had finished, the three Gryffindors on the couch were speechless. Draco had nearly killed his "girlfriend" and had saved Philomena.

"What's your deal, Malfoy? Why are you acting so civil all of a sudden?" asked Hermione.

"I'm not civil to everyone mind you. I just," he closed his eyes and sighed, it was now or never, "I'm just tired of it all. There's no fucking point to it anymore."

"What do you mean, Draco," Philomena asked attempting to coax more out of him.

"There are more important things in life than fighting over petty bullshit," he turned to face Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "Look, I'm sure you probably hate me with every fiber of you beings but I just want you to know I'm sorry for the things I've said and the way I've treated you all in the past. I don't expect you to believe a word of this but I do mean it. I'm not asking for your friendship; I'm just asking that you don't see me as Malfoy anymore."

Harry spoke first, "No more fights and name calling?"

"None, I mean when you think about it, it's rather primary school," he chuckled a bit to himself.

"I think we can handle being civil to you if you in turn are civil to us."

Draco nodded and repeated the gesture he had made their first year; he reached his hand out to shake Harry's. Harry looked at the hand remembering the first time he was in this position. The first time he had turned down Draco's offer of friendship, this time he would accept his offer of a truce. Harry grasped Draco's hand and gave it a firm shake. Draco smiled, and then said, "Well, it's late; I think I'll head back to my dorm and help Blaise." Philomena laughed as he exited the portrait.

"What's so funny?" Ron asked

"Blaise is currently hexing Pansy and her evil minions," Philomena answered in between giggles.

"Oh, well they deserve it," said Hermione as she closed the distance between them so she could look at Philomena's wounds.

"You think I could get away with a simple concealment charm?"

"Yeah, these will have to heal on their own anyway. Just don't forget about your lip because if you smile too much it might split open again. Let me see that cut on your arm."

Philomena removed her arm from under the cloak. Hermione looked at it for a second before deciding it was a wound she could handle herself. She muttered a cleaning spell followed by a healing spell. The skin had closed up leaving only a thin white line as a scar. Hermione smiled at her handy work then kissed it, "All better."

"Good, thank you," Philomena yawned.

"You should get to bed; you have a long day ahead of you," warned Harry.

"I know, I have to get all my assignments from the professors. I haven't even begun to pack yet."

"We haven't either," said Ron and Harry together.

"You already know I've finished packing," said Hermione when they all looked at her.

Philomena tested her feet by tapping them lightly on the floor. When she didn't get that horrible pins and needles feeling, she stood.

"You need any help," Hermione asked as she put her arm around her.

"Nope I'm good now. Night boys," she said as she and Hermione headed up to bed.

"Night!"

**A/N: **Whew! That's probably the longest thing I've ever written. Sorry it's late but reality kicked in and I actually had homework to do. I'm kind of iffy on the dream sequence so tell me what you think about it. Next chapter should be up in about a month maybe sooner as I will be on Thanksgiving break for a week with nothing better to do.


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